Preserving Your Smile: How Full Mouth Implants Enhance Facial Aesthetics

Did you know scientists discovered the technology behind dental implants a mere 72 years ago? Once scientists discovered that titanium could fuse with human bone, the path to modern implant dentistry began.

Not all patients know how full-mouth dental implants work, though, nor do they know what implants can do for a smile. A good dental implant benefits the patient's aesthetics. Even a mini dental implant can improve quality, though full mouth implants help the most.

Ready to learn what full mouth implants can do for you? We'll walk you through the many benefits of these implants and how this type of dental work can improve your confidence.

How Full Mouth Dental Implants Prevent Bone Loss

You've had confidence in your face your whole life, but age-related tooth decay has changed your look. One day, you wake up and realize your face doesn't look like your face anymore. Your jaws seem hollow and sunken, and your smile looks wrong to you.

Symptoms like these occur due to bone loss. Without the root of a tooth to stimulate the bone and encourage regular rebuilding, the bone withers, and the face changes shape over time.

Direct bone integration confers one of the biggest dental implant benefits when it comes to this type of face change. The titanium posts in your mouth will bond with the bone in the same way a tooth root would.

Nose-Chin Distance

Most of the bone loss that occurs in cases like these happens in the area that once housed the tooth roots. Over time, the lost bone creates a shift in the way the jaw rests.

This loss alters the lips, makes the chin look smaller, and can develop into a collapse of the lower part of the face.

Too Much Bone Loss?

Sometimes, patients with these aesthetic concerns who want a full mouth reconstruction have lost much of their jawbones by the time they seek help. This can make dental implant placement more difficult.

In this case, a dentist can place a bone graft. This graft can include material from your bones, another human bone, or an animal's bones. Dentists can also use synthetic material for bone grafts.

This allows the bone to build back stronger before implant placement. While you may feel this delays your restoration too much, remember that your dentist wants to give you the best chance to enhance your smile.

Facial Contours

Teeth play a role in the shape of the overall face beyond the jaw. Without teeth to rest against, cheeks can sink and lips can look misshapen. This occurs even with one or two lost teeth, as the teeth near the missing tooth shift and sink.

Whether you've lost one tooth or many, dental implants can address this issue as well. The new teeth will put your cheeks and lips in a more natural place. While you might not look identical to your old photos, implants can restore the general shape of your face.

Natural Tooth Look and Feel

Many patients worry about the appearance of their new teeth. The smile matters as much as the ability to chew and bite. Dental implants and implant-supported dentures can help with these issues in ways other restorations like fillings don't.

Where possible, the prosthetic teeth will match the patient's natural teeth. If the dentist has no frame of reference, the implant will still look like natural teeth.

A More Stable Smile

Some other types of restorations break down over time. If you have a smile that makes you happy, having to replace a restoration can demoralize you.

Dental implants hold up for more than 15 years if a patient takes care of those new teeth. The long-term restorations in an All-on-4 dental implant system provide continuity in your appearance that another restoration might not.

Look, Feel, and Sound While Speaking

Your teeth, gums, and palate affect your appearance and sound while speaking. The places of articulation in your mouth determine how words sound when you say them, so damage to these can lead to changes in your cadence and overall sound.

Not all patients realize that the effects of tooth decay on their voices can change with dental intervention. Dental restoration procedures can give you a more confident, natural look and sound when speaking.

Wrinkles

While some wrinkles on the face occur with age as skin becomes elastic, others come from damage to the mouth. As with other facial changes, wrinkles come from a lack of support for the skin and resorption of underlying tissue.

As your dental health improves after implants, some wrinkles may go away. While some damage to the skin may persist, the loss of wrinkles contributes to a youthful, healthy appearance.

Fixing Annoyances

Not every aesthetic benefit of dental implants has to come from a medical issue. Some people don't like the size of their front teeth or the way their teeth rest against one another.

Others may have always had a gap between teeth, which has worsened with damage to their overall oral health.

Issues like these can also change with a dental prosthetic. Full mouth restorations give you the chance to change the little things you don't like about your smile.

 If you have specific requests for your smile makeover, such as changing an awkward bite or previous dental crowding, let your implant dentist know.

Temporary Downsides

You may feel your face looks swollen or lopsided after initial implant placement. These issues come from short-term injury to the jaw and gums associated with surgery and will go away in two weeks or less in most cases.

Rebuilding Your Smiling Face

If you have any of these issues, you should understand how full-mouth dental implants can help you change your life. A durable, natural-looking set of new teeth can encourage you to enjoy your day-to-day activities more.

At Braddock Family Dental, we want to give you a smile that can help you face the world. Dr. Samuel Cho has over two decades of experience as a dentist and takes 25 annual hours of specialized continuing education courses on dental implants per year. Look at some of our testimonials, and when you feel ready, contact us to schedule an appointment.