Living with a gap in your mouth from a missing tooth has consequences, and you might not even realize what these are. If you have a gap, the best thing you can do is replace the missing tooth with an implant. By doing this, you can prevent the following three problems from occurring inside your mouth.

Teeth Shifting

Anytime a tooth falls out and leaves a gap in your mouth, there is a risk that your teeth will begin shifting almost immediately. This happens because teeth tend to naturally want to fill in the gaps in a person's mouth, and there is very little you can do to stop this if you decide not to replace the missing tooth.

If you get a dental implant, it will prevent your teeth from shifting. Without a gap in your mouth, your teeth will have no reason to shift. While you might not care if your teeth shift, people often do care when they have spent thousands of dollars on braces.

Jawbone Wearing Away

Did you know that your teeth serve many roles, including to help preserve and rebuild the jawbone? Most people think that teeth only serve the role of helping them eat, but this is not the case. Each time you use your teeth to chew on food, you are stimulating growth of new tissue in your jawbone. When you lose a tooth, the jawbone does not regrow because there is nothing there initiating this growth of tissue.

When you replace the missing tooth with an implant, you will actually help your jawbone stay healthy and strong. An implant causes the same type of stimulation to the jawbone as an actual tooth, which means getting an implant will help prevent your jawbone from wearing away.

Loss of Facial Contour

The other thing an implant can prevent is loss of face contour. Have you ever noticed an older person's face shape when the person does not have any teeth? This person's face is probably sunken in, and that is because teeth help with the contour of your face. If you get an implant, you can keep the contour of your face; but without one, your face might also begin to sink in

Implants offer so many benefits, and that is why they are so popular today. If you are interested in finding out if you should get an implant, contact an implant clinic such as DSW Dental.