Eat The Foods You Love Again
By Dr. Christian Yaste
Over the past twenty-five years of practicing dentistry, I have found that there are generally four issues that are most important to my patients. If we can help our patients find solutions to these four issues, then almost every patient is satisfied and refers their friends and family to our practice.
These four things are as follows:
- Confidence in their smile.
- To be able to not have pain related to their teeth and or gums.
- A healthy mouth, which leads to a healthier body.
- The ability to eat the foods they love.
In a previous article, I discussed how confidence in your smile can have a tremendous effect on you as well as those around you. I shared the story of my father and how having his smile renewed changed his life. In his article I want to share with you how function, or the ability to eat properly, can make a difference in your health and happiness.
There is a large percentage of the population in the United States that are missing all their teeth or have only a few teeth left. Some of the latest research shows that 52% of adults between the ages of 20-64 years old have some tooth loss and as many as 19% of people over 65 years old are missing all their teeth.
Missing teeth can be caused by many different things including tooth decay, gum disease, and trauma. Many of the patients I see for the first time in our practice are ashamed of the fact that they struggle with this and have been shamed by previous dentists for neglecting their oral health. This always makes me cringe because I know that it is absolutely not neglect that causes these things to happen. Tooth decay and gum disease, which are the two biggest reasons for tooth loss, are caused by bacterial infections. A person’s susceptibility to these bacterial infections is determined by how your body and immune system work. Sure, there are ways of slowing down the process and certain lifestyle issues may cause the loss of teeth to happen more rapidly. However, the mouths acidity levels, bacterial load, the number of antibodies in the saliva and other less controllable variables are the chief cause of problems.
When a person begins to lose teeth, no matter what the cause, the way you chew starts to change. The loss of teeth creates a domino effect which means the more teeth you lose, the easier it is to lose the next one. If you are missing teeth, you understand how difficult it can be to chew and by not being able to chew properly there is the potential for creating problems in the digestive process. Digesting your food starts in your mouth with the teeth and the saliva which helps to begin the breaking down process. When a person is missing teeth, they are at a higher risk of developing digestive track issues and the rest of the system must work that much harder. Studies have shown that people who are missing teeth don’t live as long as people that have teeth, even if those teeth are not their own natural teeth.
So, what can you do if you are missing some or all of your teeth? Is there hope that you can once again eat the foods you love and avoid the pitfalls of not living as healthily as you could? Of course! The solution is to have your missing teeth replaced. Missing teeth can be replaced with removable prosthetics like dentures. Dentists also have the ability to make the teeth non removable and more like your old, natural teeth were by replacing them with dental implants or fixed bridges.
Having a healthy smile is more than just having an attractive set of teeth. A healthy smile is one with a set of teeth you can chew with. As a young man I used to visit my grandfather in a nursing home and what I observed was that the happiest time for him was dinner time. Being able to enjoy his meals was one of the few highlights of his day. People that have all of their teeth don’t always realize or appreciate this. If you are missing teeth and are tired of not being able to order the food on the menu you want to eat, consider visiting your dentist and having a discussion about what your options are.
