The Whole Tooth and Nothing But the Tooth

Losing teeth causes a lot of strange reactions in a person's health that may be hard to understand at first. For example, a person who loses a few teeth may find that they cannot eat fruits and vegetables like they did and end up avoiding these items. Sadly, this change of diet can be a disaster for their oral and overall health, requiring the use of dental implants to keep their diet healthy.

How Tooth Loss Affects a Person's Diet

It isn't uncommon for a person who loses one or two teeth to change their diet in many significant ways. For example, fewer teeth may make it harder to eat many types of fruits and vegetables because they can be tougher and harder to chew. Even when steamed or boiled, many vegetables can provide a tough surface for those with a loss of teeth, making it harder for that person to justify eating these foods.

Unfortunately, this change of diet can lead to a serious change in a person's quality of life. Eating less healthy foods increases a person's chances of various diseases, such as obesity, diabetes, and even cancer. More specifically, a lack of vegetables in the diet can also impact a person's teeth by giving them less healthy nutrients in their diet. Therefore, it is critical to consider a way to avoid this issue.

Dental Implants Can Help

Although someone who has lost a handful of teeth may want to consider dentures or a bridge, it is often better to get dental implants. These replacement teeth are screwed directly into a person's jaw and take the place of the natural tooth. They don't shift in position like dentures or require specialized maintenance like bridges — they fit into the mouth just like a normal tooth would do.

As a result, they can make it easier for a person to eat healthy vegetables and avoid the kind of dietary problems that may impact their overall health. Just as importantly, it is usually simpler for them to enjoy other types of foods, too, such as healthy snacks like carrots. In this way, a person can keep a healthy diet that is rich in fruit and vegetables and avoid running into oral health problems later in life.

The biggest concern for many people here will be whether or not dental insurance covers this type of implant. Thankfully, most policies do cover implants as long as they are deemed medically necessary by a person's dentist. And since they provide so many benefits, it is usually quite easy to get them declared as such by a dental health professional.