The question is, how do you fill that gap? Ideally, you don’t want to leave it as it is, and this is not just for cosmetic reasons. Eating is a much more troublesome process if you have one or more teeth missing, so it is important to have the gap filled. You could have a denture made, but more and more people are feeling that a better approach is to have a dental implant put in place instead. Compared to a denture, an implant will provide a more viable long-term solution, as it aids the integrity of the jaw bone and is more likely to contribute positively to the health of surrounding teeth.

Dental implants are made from titanium – one of the strongest metals commercially available, and happily one that is friendly to bone and which integrates well. The bad news is that putting one in place does involve drilling a hole in your jaw bone – which sounds horribly painful. The good news is that due to anaesthetic you won’t feel very much, and that this process aids the integration of the implant into the bone tissue, creating as a result a very stable foundation.

In addition to those technical factors, it is notable that a dental implant works a lot more like a natural tooth than a denture. Therefore eating an apple or similar “hard” food will not be problematic, and your dental routine need not be disturbed by the presence of the implant, as all you need to do is the same thing you would do with normal teeth.