You’re looking for a way to restore your smile and to replace damaged, missing, or decaying teeth. For some patients in San Francisco, dentures are the first option that pops into mind since the solution has been around for decades.
However, older solutions aren’t always better. With our new understanding of dental health and long-term oral care, patients now recognize the benefits of alternatives such as dental implants. Learn how the two options compare.
San Francisco Dentures vs. Dental Implants
Before you make your decision, consider this feature-by-feature comparison.
Bone loss. Missing or damaged teeth cause the jawbone to erode over time. This can change the structure of the face over time as well: the area around the mouth may become sunken, saggy, and wrinkled without bone support.
With dental implants, your oral surgeon creates new tooth roots and attaches natural-looking crowns to them. These roots help to prevent bone resorption and stimulate bone growth.
Dentures don’t preserve bone in the area of missing teeth. In fact, the weight and pressure of wearing them can actually speed resorption. As a result, the jaw may continue to lose bone mass.
Appearance. Because of bone resorption, San Francisco dentures may fit less snugly over time. As the bone beneath the gums erodes, the dentures may slip around as you chew or speak. This can undermine the point of getting dentures: giving you back a natural-looking, functional, and whole set of teeth.
Dental implants look like your own natural teeth. Because the crowns anchor to dental roots, they don’t move while you speak, smile, or chew, and they match the appearance of adjacent teeth.
Function. Wearing dentures restricts what and how you eat. Foods such as corn or steak that require rigorous chewing may be off the menu. Dentures also require additional maintenance and regular cleaning for long-term care.
Dental implants remove this sense of artificiality. They restore the same chewing ability as your own natural teeth. In addition, there is no special care: you brush your new teeth just like you normally would to keep them clean and healthy.
An Immediate Solution
San Francisco implant dentistry can replace a single tooth as well as one or both arches of teeth. It’s one of the reasons that surgeons refer to the procedure as “teeth in a day.”
Our practice, SF Oral Surgery, uses several approaches with implants. For some patients, we replace a single tooth with a single implant. For others, we establish four, five, or six new tooth roots and attaching an artificial, natural-looking set of teeth. The procedure offers a permanent solution to tooth loss and restores the look, feel, and function that you may have been missing.
Learn more about the advantages dental implants offer over dentures. Call the San Francisco office of SF Oral Surgery at (415) 776-6710.
