How to Deal with Tooth Loss Following Obesity

Studies have found a surprising correlation between being overweight and tooth loss. On one hand, it makes sense. You are more likely to be overweight if you consume sugary foods and drinks. Sugar is also the enemy of good dental health. So if you are obese, the chances are high that you have bad dental health as well.

Among overweight people, the likelihood of missing teeth is high due to the reason stated above. It can be very stressful to deal with a missing tooth on top of being overweight. However, there are solutions to both. If you have lost a tooth due to high consumption of sugary foods, here are several proven ways to fix the problem and restore your smile:

Fill in Gaps with Dental Crowns or Bridges 

Tooth loss can leave unsightly gaps between your intact teeth. Most people with tooth gaps suffer from social anxiety, where they may feel afraid to smile because of the gap. You can’t grow back missing teeth, but there’s a solution to bridge the gap.

Modern dental treatments use crowns and bridges to artificially create teeth between these gaps. A dental bridge can fill in one or two missing teeth. The natural teeth can act as the anchor to the bridge, as Vaughan cosmetic dentists explain. Dental crowns are tooth-shaped caps that are usually used to obscure badly decayed teeth. But these can recreate a missing tooth supported by an implant. Read more on that below. 

Fix Missing Teeth with Artificial Ones

If you have lost teeth, now you can use dental implants to create an artificial tooth in its place. A dental implant is a (usually) titanium screw-like equipment that a dentist drills into your jaw. The jawbone grows around it and the implant can act as a root of a tooth. Then, dentists use abutments to fix a dental crown to the implant, completing the artificial tooth. Crowns are custom designed to match your remaining natural teeth.

Dental implants are suitable for those who have lost multiple teeth in a row. Innovative treatments like All on Four can offer support to a full set of artificial teeth on a jawline. Implants not only return functionality of missing teeth, they also strengthen your jawbone. Your smile would certainly return to normal.

Correct the Jawline with Fillers 

Missing teeth don’t just ruin your smile. The loss of bone can affect your jaw as well. You may have seen this effect in elderly people, whose jawbones start to shrink with teeth loss. The same can happen to younger people who lost teeth early in adult life. Fortunately, now there’s a treatment in the form of jawbone fillers.

Called jawline contouring, this method uses a synthetic, bone-like filler to restore the shape of your jaw. The filler material infuses with the jawbone within about six months following treatment. Traditional jaw contouring involved surgery, but these days you can opt for filler injections if suitable. Jaw contouring may help you if your jowl area looks out of shape because of sudden weight gain or loss. (But remember, it’s not for removing fat; the treatment is only for the jawbone.)

You can get your appearance back if you suffer from tooth loss during or after obesity. As you follow a weight loss regimen, you can consider any of the above options to restore your smile back to normal.

This is a guest blog entry.