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Dental Implants After Dentures

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Dental Implants After Dentures

Posted by writeradmin

I’ve been wearing dentures for a little over ten years. I’ve finally saved up enough money to get dental implants, but didn’t know if I waited too long or if there are any additional steps that need to be taken. Can you please advise me?

Mark

Dear Mark,

A picture of six implants anchoring a full upper denture.
Implant overdentures

Congratulations on being so diligent in your savings! The great news for you is that, technically, it is never too late to get dental implants. I say technically because your gut feeling is correct, there may be another step required.

When you first had your teeth removed for your dentures, your body immediately recognizes there are no longer any teeth there to support. As a result, it begins resorbing the minerals in your jawbone to use elsewhere in your body. It does this in order to be as efficient as possible with your body’s resources. While a remarkable system, it does have the unfortunate effect of slowly shrinking your jawbone. That jawbone is necessary in order to help retain the dental implants.

The first step for you will be to see an implant dentist and have them do the diagnostics necessary to see how much bone structure you’ve lost in the last ten years. Make certain they do a CT scan, though if they are a good implant dentist they will know how important that is. If it turns out you have lost too much bone, don’t despair. There is still hope.

You can have a bone grafting procedure done. This will build back up the missing bone structure you lost. After a period of healing, you can then have the dental implants placed. When you are missing all of your teeth, you generally get between six to eight dental implants and then anchor a denture to them. This is known as implant overdentures or implant-supported dentures.

You will find your quality of life jumps up significantly as a result of having implants. Not only is there no more slipping and sliding because they are completely secure, but your chewing capacity will go back to what it was before you lost your teeth.

This blog is brought to you by Mt. Dora Dentist Dr. Stillman.