How Can Vitamin D Increase Dental Implant Success?

If you’re missing one or more of your teeth, you know just how difficult it can be to complete daily tasks, speak clearly, and smile with confidence. Fortunately, dental implants are available to replace the entirety of your missing tooth. Dental implants have an incredible success rate of over 95%, but they aren’t completely indestructible. Read on to learn about how vitamin D plays a role in the success of dental implants.

Why Is Sufficient Vitamin D Necessary for Dental Implants?

Vitamin D is crucial for the health of bones and teeth. Ultimately, vitamin D helps your body regulate the amount of phosphate and calcium in the body. Calcium is a mineral that is known to keep your bones and teeth strong and healthy. Without vitamin D, you would be suffering from an extreme calcium deficiency, leading you to experience a variety of problems for your dental health, like tooth decay and gum disease. When you have these issues, it is much more likely that you will end up with successful dental implants. Calcium deficiency doesn’t just affect your smile either. It is linked to many other serious dental issues in the body, including depression, osteoporosis, muscle weakness, and cancer.

How Do You Get Enough Vitamin D?

The best way to get vitamin D is by absorbing it from the sun. By spending enough time outside, you can see huge changes in the amount of vitamin D and calcium your body has. The amount of time required for a sufficient amount of vitamin D absorption depends on person to person. This is because humans have a wide variety of skin tones that absorb the sun’s rays at a different pace. People who have darker skin tones have more melanin, which protects from overexposure. Because of this, people with darker complexions require anywhere from 30 minutes to several hours more than Caucasians, who only need about 10 to 30 minutes a few times a week.

How Else Can You Get Vitamin D?

The best way to get vitamin D is from the sun, but you can also absorb it from certain foods. Here are some that have a significant amount of this essential vitamin:

• Fatty fish and seafood
• Fortified cow’s milk
• Egg yolks
• Portabella mushrooms
• Dietary supplements

Getting the nutrients that your body needs is essential for the health of your dental implants and the rest of your smile. By spending enough time getting sunshine and obtaining vitamin D through your diet, you can set your dental implants up for success!

About the Author

Dr. Danette McNew is an experienced dentist who has been working in the field for well over 30 years. She earned her dental doctorate from the Baylor College of Dentistry and is committed to continuing education to keep her knowledge and skills sharp. Currently, she is a proud member of numerous professional organizations, including the American Dental Association, the Texas Dental Association, and the Academy of General Dentistry. She is also a Fellow of the International College of Dentists and the American College of Dentists. For more information on dental implants or to schedule a consultation at her office in Rockwall, visit her website or call (972) 771-2213.