Dental implants have many benefits that distinguish them from traditional dentures. They are so much better than dentures in so many ways that they can make a significant impact on your overall health, leading to a better quality of life as you get older.
Better Bone Health
With traditional dentures, you will experience significant bone loss in your jaw. This is because your body is constantly remodeling your bone structure on the basis of what bones are being stimulated by use. Dentures don’t provide this stimulation to your jaws, so the body removes the bone that used to support your teeth.
But dental implants are placed in the bone and they stimulate your jaw similar to the way your teeth used to. They prevent bone loss, which has a number of secondary effects, such as helping you maintain a more youthful appearance and reducing your risk of jawbone fractures.
Better Nutrition
As people get older, they tend to eat a less varied diet and consume less nutritious foods, and often dentures play a very direct role in this.
Dentures not only make it harder for you to chew certain foods that have a lot of nutrients, including red meats and raw vegetables, but they can make it harder for you to taste food. This in turn makes you less interested in consuming a varied diet, which can put you at risk for health conditions related to poor nutrition. Implant dentures, though allow you to enjoy–really enjoy–a varied diet full of all the foods you eat now.
Reduced Dementia Risk
Recently, we have discovered a surprising connection between tooth loss and dementia risk. The more teeth people lose, the more likely they are to suffer dementia. But it’s not the tooth loss that’s responsible, it’s losing the ability to chew. Better chewing ability translates to lower dementia risk.
By giving you the maximum ability to chew, dental implants are the best tooth replacement option for helping you keep dementia at bay.
More Physical Activity
Your jaw helps stabilize your body during physical activity. As a large, horizontal bone, it provides an essential cross-support for your head and neck. But being able to play that role depends on being able to close firmly and securely. As a result your denture fit can actually have a surprising influence on your ability to walk without falling as you get older.
Dental implants are better than dentures at helping your jaw close firmly and provide stable support for head and neck muscles.
Better Socialization
Dentures can interfere with your social life. If you don’t feel comfortable attending many of the social functions you used to because your dentures don’t fit right, slip out, or make eating or talking difficult, you will get less socialization than in the past. Socialization can have a major impact on your physical and mental health.
Dental implants give you the confidence to enjoy life as you used to. You will be happy to meet for lunch because you can eat anything on the menu without fear of losing your dentures. You will smile with confidence, speak clearly, and laugh loudly without worrying that you will lose your dentures.
If you are looking for the tooth replacement option that will give you the best health as you get older, then there’s no doubt that dental implants are the right choice for you. To learn more about dental implants or how they can help you, please call (949) 551-5902 for an appointment with an Orange County implant dentist at Rice Dentistry in Irvine.
