When undergoing implant surgery, many patients have a similar dilemma, asking their dentist: ‘can dental implants change the shape of my face?’
Interestingly, the answer is yes. Dental implants can affect your face shape, albeit in a good way.
But more importantly, implants can prevent your face shape from changing. Many people fail to realize how tooth loss impacts your mouth. Let us bust that myth for you: it’s much more than an unsightly gap between your teeth.
Losing teeth impacts your jaw, triggering a chain reaction in your mouth called resorption. This ultimately affects your facial structure.
In this blog, we take a closer look at tooth loss and face change and understand the role of dental implants in improving the same.
But first, let’s understand how missing teeth impact your face shape!
Impact Of Missing Teeth On Your Face Shape
When you lose a tooth or in a worse case, multiple teeth, it starts impacting your facial appearance in numerous ways. Here’s an insight into how missing teeth can affect your face shape:
- A shorter face: Our jawbone plays a significant role in maintaining the face shape. The jawline begins to lose height as it decreases. This is why having severe bone loss makes your face look shorter.
- Introduction of wrinkles: A decrease in bone structure from tooth loss weakens the facial muscles. Excessive bone loss in the mouth area results in wrinkles and noticeable lines.
- Lips become thin: Having a full set of teeth in your mouth offers stability to your lips and helps them appear larger and plumper. However, your lips lose this necessary facial support when you lose teeth, which can make them appear smaller than they are.
How Do Dental Implants Change Your Face Shape?
A missing tooth can significantly impact your smile and facial features, making you look older than your actual age. It may impact jawbone shape and make you look older, drawing attention to aging symptoms.
If you’re wondering will dental implants lift my face or not, here are some examples to help you better:
Lifts Jawbone
Tooth loss is one of the primary causes of bone loss. Sadly, it also has an impact on missing teeth and face shape. However, this is where implants step in as an alternative with fresh dental roots that raise the jawbone. This way, a raised jawline gives your face a younger appeal.
Improves Chewing Ability
Dentists in Illinois suggest that tooth loss can affect your chewing ability, opening your mouth to several negative effects. Your ability to chew might be affected by tooth loss, which, in turn, has several negative effects. Losing a tooth can impact how you chew as it aches and puts more strain on the nearby teeth.
With implants, you may regain and enhance your chewing function and stop being concerned about discomfort while you chew. Bone stimulation keeps the jawbone strong and healthy as chewing capacity increases.
What’s more? Improved bone simulation improves your chewing ability and keeps your jawbone stable.
Adds To Your Facial Asymmetry
As the bone structure begins to sag due to tooth loss, implants help to lift it. It improves face asymmetry and proportionality. Your face seems more youthful, proportional, and glowing overall.
Additionally, having missing teeth has repercussions on facial features. The jawbone starts to recede when teeth are lost. Sunken cheeks originate from the face muscles sagging due to a lack of support.
But following a successful surgery for dental implants in Illinois, you may notice elevated cheekbones. With an implant-improved facial bone structure, your skin looks tighter and lovelier when your cheekbones are lifted, adding to your appeal.
Anti-aging Effects
As you lose teeth, the bone structure beneath starts to degrade. While it may result from natural accidents or aging, your face will suffer as the underlying bone structure starts to degrade.
The visible effects are drooping skin, underbites, and wrinkles. Your face muscles tighten, and implants revive the underlying bone structure. A denture face enhances your facial characteristics, making you look attractive and preventing facial aging.
Aligned teeth
Alignment of your teeth is the greatest advantage of having a dental implant. Losing teeth generally results in an underbite, further causing an unaligned smile.
However, with implants, your smile transforms due to the strategic placement of your teeth, which also increases your confidence. This way, not only do implants enhance your underbite, but they also offer you a beautiful smile.
Do Dental Implants Lift Your Face?
Certainly! Implants add to your facial appeal by restoring the bone structure. When your jaw bone is impacted by bone loss, it tends to lose shape and sag. However, you renew your face shape and smile with effective implant surgery from trained professionals.
Let Experts Help!
Opening up about tooth loss can be embarrassing for some. However, when surrounded by professionals from Loves Park Family Dental and Orthodontics, you no longer need to worry about your lost tooth. Our success in dental implants allows you to enjoy your life in no time.