Why Replace Missing Teeth

Aside from the obvious effect that missing tooth has to a person’s smile, what other reason could there be for someone to replace a missing tooth? What if the tooth missing is located at the back of your mouth, it’s not easily seen when you smile, is it still important to replace the tooth? Most dentists would say yes.

More important than the aesthetics of your smile is the function of your teeth. Each tooth is relevant to its opposing tooth, whether it’s the lower tooth or the upper tooth. Each tooth that is lost equates to the inactivity of the relative tooth it previously bites into. This means that with the loss of a tooth, two teeth are taken out of the biting or chewing activity.

When we eat, the efficiency of our chewing and biting is directly related to the number of teeth we are using for every spoonful we eat. The more number of pairs of teeth, the less chewing motion necessary, and the less teeth used, and the more effort is needed to properly bite and chew to achieve the proper consistency for easy swallowing and proper digestion.

Function of teeth in the digestive system

The alimentary canal is a mucous membrane-lined tube of the digestive system through which food passes, in which digestion takes place, and from which the absorption of nutrition is done and excretion follows after. This canal starts at the mouth and ends in the anus.

Before food is introduced to our digestive system, it should first go through a process called mastication. Mastication is where our mouth, using the teeth, chops and grinds the food into small particles. Then the food is mixed with saliva, this in turn dissolves some substances, dilutes concentrated food and lubricates it to make it easier to swallow. The process also breaks down complex foods into simpler foods using digestive enzymes and juices to enable absorption of nutrients. Without proper mastication, our digestive organs will be subjected to more work to break down the food and will lead to improper absorption and indigestion.

If there are less than normal teeth that are being used for biting and chewing, then it would need the jaw to exert more effort to achieve the right consistency of the food and to allow the proper mixture of saliva to achieve proper mastication. This would overwork the jaw.

The non-functional tooth
Just like when a person has an overbite or an uneven bite where the lower and upper teeth don’t meet right, a missing tooth can have an adverse effect to its opposing tooth, called the non-functional tooth.

When the teeth have a normal position and no tooth is missing, every bite you take allows each opposing tooth to brush away the food particles (especially if it is fibrous) you have just chewed found on the chewing and biting surface of the tooth. This means that you are cleaning the surface of your tooth while you are eating. So, when after a meal you brush your teeth, you are simply brushing away the last spoonful that you have fed yourself.

So if you are missing a tooth, your non-functional tooth would have a build-up of all the food particles you chewed from when you started your meal down to the last bite you had So when you brush your teeth, you have to concentrate longer on the non-functional tooth as there would be more food build-up on it, at least two to three times more than the time you spent a functional tooth. If you don’t replace your missing tooth, you will have a non-functional tooth that you will need to give extra care for the rest of your life. If the tooth is found at the back of your mouth, then it is highly likely that you may never get to clean it as much as you would your other functional teeth.

Also, another problem that arises would be when a non-functional tooth super-erupts. This means that the tooth will move or grow searching for a contact. When this happens, this action of the tooth can interfere with the hinge action closure of the jaws causing occlusal interferences that predispose to bruxism (non-functional grinding) of teeth.

When this happens to teeth found at the back of the mouth, some doctors would recommend extraction to avoid further complications. Sometimes, this is indeed the best option, but, each situation should first be addressed depending on the advantages and disadvantages they pose. In its functional sense, teeth on either side and in the opposite arch tend to “collapse” into the space over a period of weeks to years. This creates what is called intra and inter arch instability and what that basically means is that the position of the teeth are unstable due lack of support from a neighbouring tooth (imagine what happens to a fence when one fence post is damaged).

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