Building bone
The human body carries out millions of processes every day, most of which we are completely unaware of. Cells are replaced and nutrients are extracted from food to provide nourishment for our bodies. The jawbone is no exception, which renews itself as we eat, speak and laugh.
How does the jawbone keep renewing itself? When you move your jaw, your teeth minutely tap together with their opposite number. We don’t consciously feel this happening, but this process regularly sends vibrations through the teeth, down the root and into the jawbone. This signals to the body that the bone is still needed here, so it will keep building new bone cells and supplying that area of the jaw with blood.
However, if you lose a tooth, this delicate process is disturbed, as there is no tooth for its opposite number to tap against. No tap, no vibration, no need for the bone anymore. This can cause the body to cease the renewal process at the site of the lost tooth, and instead use the nutrients elsewhere in the body.
While you have to marvel at this efficiency, it’s not great news for your facial structure. With jawbone deterioration, the face begins to sag, giving you a prematurely aged look. It can also mean that neighbouring teeth drift into the gap left behind and become loose themselves. And while a crown or bridge will shore up this gap, with no replacement root, the jaw still shrinks away.
There is a way to readdress this and that’s with dental implants in Windsor. Implants are small metal screws which are fixed into the jawbone, so re-establish the link between teeth and the jawbone.
Because dental implants in Windsor are made from titanium, a biocompatible metal, as soon as the implant is placed in the jaw the body starts to bond with it and grows new bone tissue and blood vessels at the implant site.
Here at The Old Windsor Dental Practice, our implant dentist Ian Seddon has been placing implants for 25 years, so you can trust in his track record. Call in today and find out if dental implants in Windsor could help keep your jawbone strong.
