Dental implants are very similar to your natural teeth, but there is one major difference: your teeth are held in place by a tough but flexible periodontal ligament. The periodontal ligament allows the natural tooth to move slightly under the forces of your bite. Ideally, when all forces are balanced, these movements are balanced and your teeth stay in place.

Dental implants don’t have a periodontal ligament–they’re anchored directly in the bone. This could potentially change the balance of forces experienced by your teeth, causing them to drift one way or another, and potentially cause some to get crooked.

But if your teeth are healthy and your bite balanced, your natural teeth aren’t likely to drift.

 

Healthy Teeth Don’t Drift Much

It’s important to note that if your teeth are healthy, with a good amount of bone surrounding and supporting them, they don’t move much. It takes a consistent and directed force to cause your teeth to move.

That’s what orthodontic treatments like Invisalign and braces do: provide consistent, directed force on your teeth, causing them to move slightly over weeks and months. With your natural teeth, it would require a similar directed force to cause your teeth to get crooked.

A Balanced Bite Keeps Teeth Stable

But it is possible that your natural bite could provide exactly the kind of forces that would cause your teeth to drift, leading to crookedness. After all, that’s why many people develop crooked teeth in the first place.

But using neuromuscular dentistry, we can make sure that your bite is stable, and that all of your teeth are experiencing balanced bite forces that keep them from drifting. This means that the dental implant will have little or no effect on the alignment of your natural teeth, whether that’s making them crooked or straightening them out.

If you would like to learn more about how a combination of dental implants and neuromuscular dentistry can help you get the best results, please call (912) 234-8282 for an appointment with a Savannah cosmetic dentist at Beyond Exceptional Dentistry.