There's always a question about how any sort of dental procedure may change your appearance. For example, tooth whitening definitely changes the appearance of your smile. For patients seeking a cosmetic dentist Short Pump Dental offers other procedures, like dental implants.
Dental implants can change your appearance as well, but Short Pump Dental implants are not so extreme that no one will recognize you. Contact Short Pump Dental.
Changing Your Smile, but Not Your Face
If you only need one or a few implants, then the only noticeable changes in your face will be a smile without gaps. Your other teeth may become a little straighter with the implants, but your face shape overall remains the same.
Lacking Multiple Teeth for a Long Time
If you have been without several teeth for a long time, that area of your face may be slightly sunken inward. In this case, the change in your face shape is the result of implants filling out this area again. As the implants go in, the slightly sunken area fills out. Your cheek(s) can't sink inward because there are now "teeth" there.
Total Face Shape Change
Lacking almost all your teeth and not wearing dentures regularly causes shrinkage in the jaw bones. The shrinkage in bone in turn causes the sunken cheeks and curling in of the lips. When your smile is fully restored with a mouthful of implants, your face and lips move back into their previous position.
Your original face shape may be restored, although not fully. It just depends on the amount of bone in your jaws left for implant surgery and how long you have gone without natural teeth or dentures.
The Overall Answer Regarding Implants and Face Shape
For most patients needing a few implants, a change in face shape is unlikely unless the surgeon needs to break and reset a jaw. However, a procedure that extreme is quite uncommon. A few patients who have experienced the fullest effect of a lack of teeth for many years will have the most dramatic change in facial shape with a full set of dental implants.
The long and short answers of whether or not your face shape will change with dental implants are "yes" and "no." Choosing to get your Short Pump Dental implants is a big step in changing your appearance. The cosmetic dentist Short Pump Dental is waiting to hear from you! Contact Short Pump Dental.