- Missing teeth, why are they problematic,
why would you not want to leave them,
and how many teeth do you really need?
(upbeat music)
What's up guys?
This is Doctor O with The Dental Drive.
Man, it's good to see your smilin' face today.
You guys look good!
(Riley laughs)
He thinks that's funny.
I like that Riley.
Thanks for laughing, buddy.
He thinks it's funny, I guess.
Sometimes that's all you need is just your child
to laugh at you.
It makes you feel good.
So today we're gonna talk about missing teeth
and what are the consequences,
and how many teeth do you really need.
So when I consider missing teeth in our patients
we want to really talk about how many teeth are you missing
and which teeth are you missing.
And a gap in your smile or a gap in missing teeth,
so if your tooth is missing in between another two teeth,
that would be more problematic than a back third.
Obviously we usually take out wisdom teeth,
or a second molar being missing.
Those are not as important as a first molar.
So if you are having the third or second molar removed
cause of cost to repair, or you already have them missing,
most people do pretty darn well with first molar forward.
Now when you start missing first molar, pre-molars,
or any of these other supporting teeth
in front of your first molar,
now we have a real issue with longterm health and balance.
And a great analogy for that, and I'm passing one right now,
so it kinda works out.
And I got one behind me, yeah!
It's these trailers, these 18 wheelers, right?
These 18 wheelers that have 18 wheels
to give it enough support for the longterm load
that these trucks have to carry
through the life of their service.
And the same thing, it goes for our mouth.
We have obviously 28 teeth
if we have our wisdom teeth removed.
32 if you still have 'em.
But those teeth, that many teeth, are really important.
The more you have for a longterm balance and stability.
So the more you miss, the more issues you have.
And you can imagine that a vehicle that's missing some tires
or wheels on the right side is going to have more issues
with the way that the vehicle wears, right?
So longterm that's a real issue.
It doesn't happen overnight.
So some people get their teeth taken out
and no big deal, right?
They go for a few years and like man, I feel pretty good.
Why do I need to replace 'em?
If you fast forward five, 10, 15, 20 years,
a matter of fact I got some photos.
I'll show you some teeth that have shifted here in a second.
But you'll see how those teeth have shifted
and what it took to get them, with Invisalign,
or moving the teeth back into the proper position,
so that way we could restore them correctly.
So here's some great photos.
You'll see this lady here replaced a number of implants
to replace her missing teeth.
She was breaking off her front teeth
cause they were taking too much of the load.
That's another thing, God designed our front teeth to cut
and our back teeth to chew.
And so when you remove those back teeth
you lose the support and now your front teeth have to chew.
It causes them to break and deteriorate really quickly.
So if you're really young you got a lot of years ahead of ya
that's gonna make a big issue, right?
So with her we moved her teeth to the right position
and you'll see that we moved them, restored these implants,
and now she has solid teeth in the upper
and she has solid teeth on the lower.
The next patient here you'll see he had some missing teeth
in the upper and lower as well.
And we got him back to first molar.
You'll see that that was the priority.
We didn't spend extra money to get second molars
because it's my feeling and my belief
and every dentist is going to have their own feeling
and belief and opinion,
but if you ask nine dentists you'll get 10 different answers
but I feel like if you can get patients back
to at least their first molar,
you're gonna have good longterm success.
And so that's my philosophy with that.
So how many teeth?
Trying to make sure that,
especially our younger population,
but even the older population is gonna benefit
from having first molars
because of the chewing capability, the strength,
and the overall longterm health benefits for you.
Hopefully that was a short enough answer
for what's the consequences,
why you should go ahead and make sure to replace them
if they are missing,
that way you have longterm health.
Here's another lady by the way
that you can even see this tooth just rotated
and we had to get it back.
And she was a young lady,
so you could imagine that happened fairly quickly
from missing that tooth.
And we placed a nice implant there for her.
That kinda wraps up missing teeth
for this discussion today.
But tomorrow I want to talk to you
about something that's kinda a little more personal.
So we're gonna talk about, I don't know, what do you think?
Maybe like why did I decide to become a dentist.
That'll be kinda fun, right?
So tomorrow I'll try to keep it short.
I love dentistry.
I have a lot to say about that.
But I could go a little longer tomorrow.
I'll try not to.
I only have like a 15 minute drive home,
so I'm gonna have to get with it and be quick.
But Riley, you want to say goodbye?
Goodbye! - Goodbye.
- Want to say goodbye?
Say it louder.
- Goodbye!
- All right, bye.
Anyway, so I hope you guys have an awesome evening.
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We will see you tomorrow for The Dental Drive.
You keep smilin'.
It definitely looks good on you.
(clicks)
(upbeat music)