How Dental Implants Give You Freedom

Dental implants provide many excellent benefits. Patients experience improved stability, a more youthful facial structure, and restorations that look and feel just like their natural teeth. Not only that, but dental implants can last your entire lifetime if you care for them properly. That said, dental implants also give patients freedoms you might not have considered. Read on to learn more.

It sounds coy, giving so much credit to something that no one will know about but you and your implant dentist in West Omaha. But the fact is that after patients receive dental implant treatment, they often come to us raving about freedoms that they thought they had lost forever. Here are some examples.

1. You can be your authentic self once again.

For many people, smiling comes naturally. Plus, the health benefits of smiling are numerous. Smiling helps fight off stress and serves as a natural mood booster. It’s contagious too. When you smile at someone else, it makes them feel welcomed and important. Smiling at someone when they are feeling down can help lift their spirits and remind them that they aren’t alone. And on the opposite side of the spectrum, forcing a smile when feeling down can help lift your spirits too. Quite simply, smiling helps people feel happy.

But have you ever thought of what happens when you don’t smile? Frowning can signal to others that you want to be alone, even if that isn’t true. Not only that, but when you don’t smile, you remove yourself from essential social interaction that helps us live long, fulfilling lives. With your new dental implants, however, you’ll feel like smiling again. And your smile will be so beautiful that you’ll want to smile at everyone you see.

2. You can eat what you want, when you want.

Let’s preface this point: Whether or not you have dental implants, you should still maintain a healthy and well-balanced diet. Sugary and starchy foods should be kept to a minimum. This means that most of your meal should be protein rich, with lean meats, fatty fish, and crunchy vegetables to give you critical vitamins and minerals.

But we mean here that when you are missing teeth or have dentures, you are limited in what you can eat. Missing teeth make it hard for you to bite and chew your food properly, resulting in poor digestion. And if you have dentures, you must avoid foods like popcorn and limit others like nuts, seeded bread, steak, and certain raw fruits and vegetables. With your implants, however, you can eat what you want when you want. You won’t need to worry about embarrassing situations from gaps in your smile or not being able to chew sufficiently, and you won’t have to take out your dentures. 

3. Your speech will improve. 

Your teeth are not just for biting and chewing. Your tongue comes into contact with your teeth at varying angles to pronounce certain sounds. For example, if you are missing teeth in the front of your mouth, you might be unable to say words such as “sew,” “fish,” “chin,” “shoe,” or “gym.” But your implants are designed to look, feel, and function just like your natural teeth. This means that they restore your ability to enunciate correctly.

Along with improved speech comes the ability to be active again, probably in ways you haven’t been for some time. Missing teeth may have kept you from going out with your friends. And dentures can be easily lost or misplaced, leading some patients to avoid going out altogether.

4. You’ll gain confidence to make other healthy lifestyle changes.

When you regain your smile, it is only natural to want to make wise and healthy choices. You will start to feel more confident again, making you more likely to initiate new friendships and relationships. 

Consider the ripple effect, which indicates that a tiny change in behavior—whether good or bad—can impact other parts of your life. If you feel better about how your smile looks, you may want to improve other aspects of your health too; thus, you start working out and eating better. If you are a smoker, dental implants might be the final encouragement you need to quit the habit. Whatever lifestyle changes you make for the benefit of your health will preserve your current and future oral and overall health. 

In summary, making one significant change in your life, such as getting dental implants, can give you the confidence to make other healthy choices in your life.

Don’t underestimate the newfound freedom that your dental implants will provide. 

Overall, while dental implants are beneficial for your oral health, they are just as good, if not more so, for your mental and overall health. So if you are ready to regain your freedom and experience all the benefits that dental implants offer, request an appointment today. The Tooth Doc is your implant dentist in West Omaha.