- Aram Lenserovich, when should a person start sounding the alarm and thinking about dental implantation - after losing one tooth or when three or four are already missing?

- The human body is an integral system, so, of course, every lost tooth needs to be restored, and the restoration should be early. There was a time when bridge structures were used for these purposes, it was necessary to grind down two adjacent teeth, which did not have the best effect on their condition. Now there is no such need - we can install an implant.

- How serious are the cases you have to deal with?

- Up to complete absence of teeth, but it is not about the number. Yesterday, for example, I had a patient without two upper chewing teeth, who complained about the distortion of soft tissues. According to his feelings, saliva is leaking and the smile is deformed. Although, it would seem, the front teeth are not involved at all, they are good.

- Why do we lose our chewing teeth first?

- These are the teeth that come first, before the baby teeth are replaced. They bear the main chewing load. In addition, in our youth we do not always brush our teeth thoroughly, not realizing how important it is. As a result, the sixth teeth are more often subject to caries than others. And this can lead to problems such as pulpitis, periodontitis and, ultimately, to tooth extraction.

- The loss of side teeth is unpleasant, but not as catastrophic for a person emotionally as the loss of front teeth. Have there been cases in your practice when you had to urgently restore a smile?

- Such cases happen, and quite often. People lose or break their front teeth as a result of injury, through carelessness. There was a case when a girl was getting married in a week, and the front tooth needed to be removed for an urgent reason. The situation is saved by one-stage implantation: an implant is immediately installed in place of the removed tooth, if necessary, gum and bone tissue are grafted, and a crown is put on, with which a person can have a wonderful time at his wedding.

- It seems to me that the front teeth are more difficult to restore. Is there a difference in implantation of the front and chewing teeth?

- Of course, you are right! Implantation of the front tooth requires utmost concentration. No, not because of the survival rate of the implant, because they survive in the same way. The aesthetic aspect is extremely important here, it is necessary to clearly imagine how the row will look over time.

- What problems can a missing tooth lead to?

- The most common one is the phenomenon of substitution, the body's attempt to cope with the situation, to compensate for the absence of this lost tooth. Neighboring teeth begin to shift: the upper or lower tooth drops or rises into the defect zone, and two neighboring ones lean toward it. After some time, a person comes to put in implants, and the place is already occupied by neighboring teeth! In our practice, we may have been the first to begin correcting such deformations.

- With the help of corrective systems, braces?

- No, this is done with the help of special equipment, and here we are talking about microorthodontics

- What else can the absence of a tooth ultimately affect?

- Facial expressions, articulation, bite and the health of the remaining teeth, their wear. All the functions of the missing tooth are redistributed, and as people have begun to live longer, the remaining teeth may not have enough strength. By the way, we have a special program designed for the elderly people - a special implant system that allows them to regain lost teeth.

- There are situations when a person is happy with the absence of a tooth, but you as a specialist see that this will lead to serious consequences?

- Prognosis is a key point that, unfortunately, is not taught in dentistry. If you consult a patient and warn that he has such a situation now, but in 10-15 years it will be completely different and it will be impossible to fix, the person makes the right decisions. For this purpose, our clinic has a comprehensive consultation.

- Is it true that even in a situation where a patient has no teeth at all, modern technologies allow him to be completely restored in six months?

- Of course. Modern technologies allow, even in the case of adentia, to completely restore missing teeth, their function, restore aesthetics, and a person will begin to live and smile in a new way.