Millions of people around the world are missing all their teeth in their upper or lower jaw. Many of them struggle to keep their dentures secure, particularly in the lower jaw. If you are one of them, you already know about the embarrassment of slipping dentures, not being able to eat all the foods that you love and the ineffectiveness of denture adhesives. Fortunately, there is now a way to make your denture work the way it was intended: stabilization with dental implants.
Losing one or more of your teeth starts a chain of events that can have dire physical and cosmetic consequences. The most obvious result is a gap in your smile. Less obvious is the loss of chewing function and the inability to eat a complete diet that can result from it. While these are certainly serious issues, a potentially bigger problem lies hidden beneath the surface: bone loss. Without the tooth to stimulate the jaw, the bone beneath it will begin to disappear (atrophy) in the same manner that the muscle underneath a cast gets smaller. Since your facial bone supports the skin and muscles on top of it, losing volume can cause your face to look prematurely aged. The good news is that dental implants offer a solution to stop bone loss.
Conventional treatment options for tooth replacement, Crown & Bridge and full or partial dentures, address the short-term cosmetic problem of the missiing teeth, but do nothing to stop the bone loss. Crown & Bridge also requires that two or more healthy teeth be ground down to serve as abutments (anchors) for a bridge, leaving them at a much greater risk for cavities and endodontic failure. If the original abutment teeth fail, more healthy teeth must be sacrificed to serve as anchors, while you continue to lose bone beneath the bridge.
However, with implants, the healthy teeth are left alone. Plus, dental implants, like natural teeth, transmit chewing forces to the jaw, stimulating it and halting the bone loss. This is why many leading dental organizations now recognise dental implants as the standard of care for tooth replacement.
Dental implants can be placed in most adults who are in good to moderate health. They are not typically placed in adolescents until they have reached their full expected height. Certain uncontrolled medical conditions may cause decrease the effectiveness of implant treatment, so be sure to discuss your full medical history with your doctor before beginning treatment.
Please ask your doctor to explain the benefits and risks to see if tooth replacement with implants is right for you.