Have you considered the role that your teeth play in your general speech? Have you thought about having the gap left by a missing tooth filled to enable clearer speech habits?
At Harley Street Dental Clinic, we can help conceal gaps and improve your speech using dental implants Harley Street. Secure, realistic prosthetics that are the closest thing you will get to restoring your natural teeth.
In this short article, we look at how missing teeth can impact your speech and how having dental implants Harley Street fitted can help.
Missing teeth and speech
We all remember being young and losing one of our front baby teeth; this created the adorable whistle effect when we spoke, which is linked to children in that age range.
However, if you are an adult and have a missing tooth at the front, this once cute sounding noise can become a hindrance, and it may make it difficult to speak without feeling self-conscious.
Dental implants Harley Street are placed into the jaw and, over around 3 to 6 months, they fuse to the bone, acting as a stable root to have a prosthetic tooth (crown) attached, a fitted bridge or secured denture.
This not only allows you to close the gap(s) that have been creating this issue with your speech, but with the added security of the implant holding the prosthetic in place, you don’t have to worry about your tongue moving incorrectly, which can also create clearer speech patterns in the long term.
Gaps in teeth
Aside from having a missing tooth, you may have gaps in between your teeth that you want to fix with oral implants if braces are not an option.
Much like a missing tooth, these gaps can create odd sounds when talking and pronouncing ‘th’ sounds, especially if they are at the front of your mouth.
If you and our team have decided to have an implant-supported bridge fitted at the front of your mouth, then this will offer all of the advantages mentioned above, but with a subtler effect when you say words that have an ‘s’ in them.
Speaking with oral implants
It is easy to highlight how oral implants will benefit your speech and vocal patterns, but it is worth noting that after the prosthetics are fitted, they will take some getting used to.
When you first have your implants fitted, our team will ask you to speak to ensure that the implants are aiding in your pronunciation, and not hindering it; if there is an issue, we may need to move the location of the implant, but this is a very uncommon occurrence.
A simple way to speed up adapting to oral implants is to do facial exercises whilst looking into a mirror each day; our team will be able to offer you guidance on this and it will help your facial muscles adapt to the new positions of your teeth, along with your tongue.
Remember, based on the size of the prosthetic, how many implants you received and your body’s healing time, it can take up to 3 weeks to get used to speaking with oral implants, so patience is key!