Danger #2: Poorly Fitting Partial Dentures Increase Your Risk of Tooth Loss and Gum Disease

When dentures don’t properly fit, bacteria can lie in areas behind them and lead to gum and bone disease.  Partial dentures that don’t fit actually wear through the gum tissue and destroy the bone, causing loose teeth.  The partial denture settles and the opposing teeth shift, making it even more difficult to chew.  If a person with this problem waits too long, the treatment becomes more complex and can cost thousands of dollars more to fix.

Danger #3: Dentures May Reduce Your Life Span.

I know this sounds kind of ridiculous, because who would ever think that your teeth could have an affect on how long you live. But it’s true!  Many people with poor fitting dentures or multiple missing back teeth live shorter life spans of up to 10 years less due to poor eating habits and stomach problems. They tend to eat more processed foods and experience many other health problems related to malnutrition from poorer eating habits. People today now have options to dentures, and one of them is dental implants. People who get dental implants can finally eat the healthy foods they have been missing such as apples, fresh vegetables, corn on the cob, and even steak!

Why “cut down” Good Teeth?

To place a conventional bridge, the teeth adjacent to the site need to be reduced to hold crowns, which then support the missing tooth.  This may be OK if the teeth are already broken down, but if the teeth are healthy—why destroy healthy teeth?

In this case, the patient from Wheaton also wanted to keep the space between the teeth—impossible to achieve with a conventional dental bridge.

for more information on dental implants visit  Smileglenellyn.com and visit other blog articles in this site.
Dr. Gibbs provides sedation dentistry, comfort based dentistry, implant dentistry, and cosmetic dentistry for patients in the Chicago area.  This includes Wheaton, Naperville, Lisle, Glendale Heights, Lombard, Schaumburg, Roselle, Elmhurst, Chicago,  Hoffman Estates, Warrenville, and Downers Grove.  Contact us at SmileGlenEllyn.com

One decision that many patients have to decide upon is whether to replace lost teeth with an implant or bridge.

If you are considering having a conventional bridge, please be aware that your other teeth may be compromised.  To place a conventional bridge, the teeth adjacent to the site need to be reduced to hold crowns, which then support the missing tooth.  This may be acceptable if the teeth are already broken down, but why destroy healthy teeth?  And unfortunately, according to insurance company statistics, the average crown placed in America only has about a five year success rate. The implant not only preserves the adjacent teeth, but is easier to clean—and long term can be a better investment. Dental implants can be a highly esthetic solution even in the front teeth.

A summary of the advantages and disadvantages are as follows:

A dental implant can be thought of as a new root made of pure titanium.  Titanium is the same material used in medicine for hip replacements and is very strong and highly biocompatible.  Implants made of titanium cannot decay and do not require root canal therapy. An advantage of implants is that they stimulate bone growth and thus prevent future bone loss.  Once bone disappears, unfortunately, it can only be replaced with a bone graft.

Implants are placed in the bone on the first clinical appointment and are allowed to heal for a period of three to six months. After this healing time the implants are examined to ascertain their osteo-integration, or degree of fusion to the bone. The implant then can be prepared to accept the final prosthetic components.

Once a dental implant is placed, the implant can be used to hold a crown or used as an anchor for a dental bridge. Implants can be even used with other implants and retainers to support, retain, or even completely replace dentures.

Multiple implants can also be used to replace teeth in a variety of ways. Please refer to our Report entitled “Implant Alternatives to Dentures” for further information.

Low Success Rates for Non-Implant Alternatives

5 % Year Success Rates

• Removable Denture                            83%
• Resin Bonded Bridge                         64%
• Conventional Bridge                           79.3%
• Implant Supported Prosthesis             98%

(Misch C.E, J. Implantology, Vol. 2 1999)

*10 Year success rate for partial dentures diminishes to 50%!

Also, teeth that are behind a lost tooth can tip and move forward, resulting in additional decay problems and possible tooth loss.  Eventually, the entire side of the mouth will collapse.

Most people are not aware that their teeth will shift so much and cause so much damage.  Also see our last blog article on POSTERIER BITE COLLAAPSE.

Again these problems can be prevented with appropriate restoration with dental bridges, dental crowns, partial dentures, and (best option) dental implants.

We have had many patients over the 25 years I have doing cosmetic, implant and sedation dentistry.  Some have absolutely insisted that they have the front teeth restored to beauty first without regard to the back teeth.  Sometimes you have to understand that they may have an impending wedding or business engagement upcoming.  BUT BEWARE OF THIS TRAP—YOU ABSOLUTELY NEED INTACT BACK TEETH FOR THE FRONT TEETH TO SURVIVE LONGE TERM!

Replacing missing back teeth with dental bridges, dental partials, or (best option) dental implants would give support to the front teeth so that they do not splay forward and have large gaps open up in them.  We have done these procedures with patients from all over the Chicago area, Wheaton, Glen Ellyn, Elmhurst, Oak Brook, Lisle, Naperville, Schaumberg, and many other towns.  The lady in these photos eventually had implants for her back teeth, and dental bridges and dental crowns to restore her front teeth with IV sedation.

When a tooth is lost, the surrounding bone begins to wither away, causing a loss in facial height, a change in the chin cress, and a “weak” look as the bones become smaller.

Even more disturbing is the sunken cheeks that result from tooth loss and dentures.

Dental Implants-Aging Face

This sinking in of the cheeks is not from the loss of the physical mass of the teeth, it is from the atrophy of the facial muscles, the loss of bone, and the subsequent loss of facial height.  And, unlike some people may believe, these changes are not normally reversible with the simple addition of “bulkier” dentures.

Will Your Cheeks Sink In?

Even more disturbing is the sunken cheeks that result from tooth loss and dentures.  THIS SINKING IN OF THE CHEEKS IS NOT FROM THE LOSS OF THE PHYSICAL MASS OF THE TEETH, BUT FROM THE ATROPHY OF THE FACIALMUSCLES, THE LOSS OF BONE, AND SUBSEQUENT FACIAL HEIGHT.  It is not normally reversible with the simple addition of “bulkier” dentures.

The use of dental implants can increase chewing ability and the help regain the tone of the facial muscles,  The use of dental implant bridges, all on four dental bridges, teeth in a day dentures, and dental implant crowns allow patients to chew  AND smile again in confidence!

The extraction site will typically heal after a tooth is removed.  The bone, however, will begin to wither away.  40-60% of the bone that once surrounded the root of a tooth will waste away from the area within the first three years after an extraction and the bone loss will continue at a rate of about 1% per year for life.

Another hidden danger of tooth loss involves the sinuses.  If too much bone is lost in the upper posterior tooth areas there is a greater chance that the sinus will expand into—and hollow out– the remaining bone.

Once a tooth is extracted, many patients will often wait too long before deciding upon remedial dental work which often leads to additional procedures and expense.  For example, instead of having a simple bone preservation graft at the time a tooth is extracted, the patient decides to wait and then requires a much more extensive and expensive block or sinus graft. The best time to discuss long term consequences of tooth loss with your dentist is before the extraction.

A report in the Journal of American Geriatrics (March 2008) found that people age 70 or older and who have no teeth are significantly more likely to report mobility problems, such as difficulty walking or climbing stairs  The authors have suggested a number of behavioral and socioeconomic factors may be related to the observed accelerated aging in this group.

Decreased Life Expectancy

Many people with poor fitting dentures or multiple missing posterior (back) teeth have shorter life spans of up to 10 years less than normal.  When a person is missing teeth or cannot chew, they tend to eat more processed foods and experience many other health problems related to malnutrition from poor eating habits.

Maintaining Dental Health with Dental Implants and Dental Hygiene

Please note that these dire problems could be avoided if the patient had maintained the health of their natural teeth.  Unhealthy teeth with decay or gum disease also cause these health problems.  Restoration of missing teeth with dental implants is necessary to maintain health.  Dentures can be replaced with implant supported bridges; “All on Four” dental bridges, “Teeth in a Day” dental bridges, “Teeth is a Day” dental bridges, implant overdentures, or implant retained (“snap on”) dentures.

Denture cream contains zinc, and all of the patients habitually used “extremely large amounts.”  The researchers propose that excess denture cream use led to the patients’ neurological problems.

The balance between zinc and copper in the body is essential for neurological health. Taking in too much of one of these trace metals can cause depletion of the other. One patient’s symptoms included weakness in the hands and poor balance, while another had weakness in her arms and legs that made her wheelchair dependent, along with cognitive decline and urinary incontinence.

Used as recommended, a tube of denture cream should last from three to 10 weeks, the researchers note, but the patients in the report were all using at least two tubes a week. Three patients had also lost their teeth at a relatively young age, meaning they had used “extremely large amounts of denture adhesive daily for years.” This research provides further evidence that dentures can be a problem to not just dental health, but overall health.

This is a problem that resulted in large part due to the patient’s letting their denture problem persist too long.  Once teeth are lost the bone that previously held in the tooth roots will wither away.  This leaves less and less bone remaining to hold the dentures in place.  The next consequence is poor fitting dentures, dentures that drop out, and dentures sores  Atrophy of the facial muscles ( this is why the face winkles and the checks sink in with tooth loss and dentures!), comes along with this.  Replacing teeth with dentures does not fix the resultant bone loss and the withering away of the facial muscles!!