More than 35 million Americans have lost all of the teeth on either their upper or lower arches or both. The process starts early, with 69% of those aged 35-44 already having at least one tooth missing. This can be the result of an accident, but the primary reason is that few of us have been taught how to properly brush and floss and it is easy for periodontal disease to get started. As the infection spreads, the gums pull away from supporting the teeth, which fall out.
If you lack just a few teeth, you probably have thought about getting partial dentures to make chewing and speaking easier, as well as helping to support the muscles of the cheeks and lips. These can be custom-made to fit your bite in a removable form or fixed. A partial denture does keep the remaining natural teeth from misaligning, a natural process that is the jaw’s effort to fill a gap. Unchecked, this would lead to more teeth becoming loose
Those who are missing many teeth will usually have any remaining ones extracted so that they can wear a full denture. But what many patients do not realize is that no conventional denture will stop the slow erosion of the jawbone that typically comes with aging. That’s why denture-wearers need to have them adjusted to fit better about every five years.
The better solution, for those who have enough jawbone, is to get dental implants placed, since these are anchored into the bone. This not only stops any remaining natural teeth from misaligning, it prevents jawbone erosion, just like natural teeth. The process is 90% successful and with proper care, implants can last 10-20 years or more. They are also much more comfortable than any denture, and no one would know that you have implants when you chew or talk, which is often not the case with dentures.
The process takes 3-6 months to complete, depending on whether you need to allow the sockets to heal from which teeth were extracted. Then a Bedford Dental Group specialist will (painlessly) insert a biocompatible titanium screw into each open socket, allow that to heal, and attach the crown, which looks exactly like a natural tooth.
There is a revolutionary alternative to individual implants for those who need at least one entire arch replaced (one half of the upper or lower teeth). The All-on-4 platform holds a half-arch of teeth anchored into the jaw with just four implants. This makes the process of replacing teeth much faster and less expensive.
