My mother is 82 years old. She has a dental bridge for most of her upper teeth. Now the dentist is telling her that she needs to remove her lower teeth now and get a dental implant supported bridge. He stressed the implants were necessary because it was her lower jaw and without it she’d be dealing with facial collapse. My concern is that she is very frail at this point in her life and on several medications. Is this really the best option for her?
Amy
Dear Amy,
I am sorry you and your mother are having to deal with this. Let me say first, that while facial collapse is a serious side effect of removable dentures, in your mother’s case, I do not think the benefits outway the risks.
Let me explain a bit about facial collapse. Whenever someone’s teeth are removed, their body immediately recognizes that. As a result, it begins a mineral resorption process. Because there are no longer any teeth roots, the body interprets that as you not needing those minerals to support your teeth. It resorbs those minerals in order to use them where it perceives they will be more needed. This has the unfortunate side effect of shrinking the jawbone. Eventually, there is not enough jawbone left for the dentures to stay in.
Having dental implants prevents that from happening because the implants serve as prosthetic tooth roots and signals to your body that you still have teeth which need to be secured. Because of that it leaves your jawbone intact.
The process of facial collapse takes about ten years to really start making a huge difference. Given your mother’s age, I’m not sure this will be a problem for her. As she also has health issues, I don’t think it will be worth the risk. Instead, she can just have removable dentures. This will be easier on both of you.
This blog is brought to you by Portage, MI Dentist Dr. Susan Dennis.