Three Reasons Missing Teeth Are Bad for Your Health

You might think that missing teeth are just uncomfortable and embarrassing, but missing teeth can actually affect your health in a number of ways. If you have been suffering with missing teeth because you thought it only affected your appearance, you need to consider these three reasons that missing teeth are bad for your health.

Poor Nutrition

If you are missing some of your back teeth used for chewing or your front teeth used for biting, you may be limited in the foods that you can eat. If you are missing a lot of teeth, you might be severely limited in what foods you can handle chewing. Having to limit your food intake can greatly affect your nutritional intake, which can cause many problems including blood glucose issues, vitamin deficiencies, and losing more teeth.

Bone Loss and Gum Disease

When you have missing teeth, it can cause you to experience gum disease, or periodontal disease, which can lead to bone loss in the jaw. If you have missing teeth and you are “chewing” your food with your gums, you are risking significant bone loss in the jaw where the teeth are missing. Bone loss can further affect your bite, cause you to have further dental issues, and require bone grafts for certain replacement teeth options.

Self-Esteem

Of course, missing teeth can greatly impact your self-esteem. While we often obsess over our appearance, the fact remains that one of the first things people notice about us is our smile. If you are missing several teeth, you might feel as though that is all a person can see of you, and it can ruin your self-esteem.

If you have teeth that you think might need to be pulled, come see us to see if a root canal to save the tooth might be possible instead. Contact us today for more information or to schedule an appointment.