Missing teeth do more than cause embarrassing gaps in your smile. In the absence of a replacement, they can affect the health and function of your smile in the following ways:

1. Impair your ability to smile, speak, and chew with confidence and ease.
2. Allow the adjacent teeth to ever so slowly drift into the unoccupied spaces, thereby changing the alignment of your smile and bite.
3. Cause teeth in the opposing arch that no longer occlude with a counterpart to extrude and further compromise your bite.
4. Promote cavities and gum disease as the teeth shift out of place and impact the distribution of biting and chewing forces, and become more difficult to keep clean.