Look Good, Feel Good There is a certain feeling each of us has when we look into the mirror and feel really confident about our appearance. It "sets the mood" for our day or social function. Simply stated, our personal confidence can dramatically effect our lives. Unfortunately, missing teeth, medically known as edentulism, keeps many people from "feeling their best". Edentulism not only effects your self confidence, but also has a dramatic impact on the quality of your life. Edentulism may limit your choice of foods and therefore your nutrition and general health. Edentulism can make you feel isolated either socially or on the job. Edentulism can effect relationships with loved ones. If not treated, partial edentulism, that is missing some of your teeth, can place stress on the remaining teeth requiring them to "do more work". This can lead to further tooth loss. Edentulism also leads to bone loss making the "fitting’ of traditional dentures difficult or impossible. For years the best solutions for missing teeth were bridges, removable partial or full dentures. Partial Dentures: When several teeth are missing, a removable partial denture may provide the support needed to fill in the spaces. Partial dentures usually attach to natural teeth with unsightly clasps and hooks. These very obvious attachments can cause undue stress on the existing natural teeth and promote tooth decay. Full Dentures: Some people can wear full dentures without fit problems, but it is not uncommon for a denture wearer to live with pain and irritation of the gums or have difficulty eating or speaking. Many denture wearers are anxious about whether or not their denture is going to slip and cause embarrassment. Fixed Bridges: Removable teeth, no matter how well made, do not feel or function like natural teeth. Historically fixed bridges came as close as possible to the feel of natural teeth. However, this necessitates "cutting down" and crowning natural healthy teeth to support the bridge. There’s another price to pay for edentulism. When teeth are removed, Mother Nature assumes there is no need for the bone that supported the teeth. After all, that is the primary job of your jawbone. Over time the bone slowly, yet progressively diminishes. In fact the upper and lower jawbone get smaller or shrink. This process, called resorption, occurs at a more rapid rate if all teeth in the jaw are missing. But, it also occurs when just some of the teeth are missing. If left untreated, the loss of jaw bone can progress so far that a denture will no longer stay in place no matter how much sticky adhesive is used. Copyright 1998 - 2001 Enexus, Inc. All Rights Reserved.