Losing the First Tooth

If your kid is turning into a big kid, losing the first baby tooth is on the horizon.  It’s an exciting sign of growing up, but many kids still feel anxious or uncomfortable dealing with the unfamiliar sensation of a loose tooth.  Southern Cross Dental wants kids and parents to be prepared and understand why this pain occurs so your child can still have a positive tooth loss experience.

Before a baby tooth is lost, it begins to break free of its nerve endings.  This is the natural process that makes the tooth feel loose and wobbly at the gums, and the area will become swollen and red.  It can be painful, and for kids a great way to soothe tooth pain is applying a cold compress to the outside of the mouth in the affected area.  Children may complain that they find it hard to bite or chew with loose or missing teeth.  It’s still important to keep eating healthy while they grow new teeth so encourage soup, pureed fruits, and cooked vegetables.  A few tales of the tooth fairy can usually ease the pain a little, too!

To learn more about tooth loss and the services we provide at the practice, visit www.scdsmile.com for more information. To schedule an appointment with one of our doctors at Southern Cross Dental in Colorado Springs, CO, call 719-471-1717.

Vertical Dimension Loss

Teeth serve many functions, one of the most underappreciated of which is supplying the face with vertical dimension. Put simply, this means that without teeth, the face shortens, resulting in all sorts of problems. At Southern Cross Dental in Colorado Springs, our doctors are experienced providers of dental prosthetics and are determined to help patients avoid the horrors of bite collapse.

When teeth are removed, the jaw bone tissue that surrounded their tooth roots recedes. As a result, the face looks shrunken, with the skin between the nose and lip becoming wrinkled and the mouth looking too small for the chin. Besides this aged appearance, patients also develop pain in their jaws which can radiate to their heads and shoulders. The loss of teeth also impacts the function of the remaining ones, since the front teeth are not held in place as firmly as the molars and are unable to take on the pressures of chewing.

If a patient still has some teeth, our dentists can use them to estimate how large to make the replacements. In cases of full-mouth restorations, our dentists will fabricate dentures using the latest software to determine a good fit. As part of the restoration process, patients will wear temporary crowns, which will give us a better idea of whether their new teeth are the right size to restore the shape of their faces.

Drs. Navid and Faranak Rahimpour operate Southern Cross Dental at 1855 S Nevada Ave, Colorado Springs, Colorado, 80905-2516. To schedule an appointment, call 719-471-1717 or visit Southern Cross Family Dentistry and fill out a contact sheet.