Implants

Dental Implants

One of the factors that accelerate a determination of our health is the loss of teeth. Once you loss 3 teeth before the age of 50, research shows you are more highly likely to loose the rest of your teeth before you die. People who keep their teeth on average live 10 years longer than people who do not. Once you loose your teeth or your mobility (able to walk) during your senior years results in results in health deterioration. More than likely there is a strong psychological factor involved. Most social functions in our society involves eating food and if grand mother cannot keep her dentures in her month or clicks when she eats, has many denture sores or is embarrassed when the grandkids make fun of her she will not want to be included in these social events vital to keep her a part of family relationships and a sense of purpose. Retirement communities are full a senior citizens who have given up being socially involved because of lack of mobility and oral embarrassment.

There are 30 million Americans who do not have teeth today so it is not an uncommon problem. How does this happen you say? Sometimes it is because people are too fearful of the dentist and have not been made aware of how sedation and laser dentistry make solutions comfortable. For others it starts when they retire and are on a fixed income and stop seeing the dentist. They assume they there mouths are very healthy and should be healthy for many years. Unfortunately 60 year old teeth and bone support need more attention than a 30 year old and the average dentist is just doing a ”here and now examination”. Dental insurance has an annual maximum of coverage, so most dentist consider what need to be done one year at a time. What they really need is a “big picture examination”, what will they need in the next 20 years. Then when they do come in they have severe damage and infections, and the cost is beyond what they want to pay or what their kids want them to pay. So often I see the children bring in their 80 year parent and do not want them to receive anything but emergency treatment because they are thinking of their inheritance not the quality of life of the parent or the patient’s health is to compromise for the treatment needed to restore their oral health and comfort..

The key to keeping your mouth healthy and treatable is keep the bone that support teeth. If you loose a tooth it is best to get an implant which will preserve the bone. Once a tooth is removed it looses 30 percent of the bone in the first year and continuous to loose more bone each year. When you first loose a tooth it is a relatively easy and predictable procedure to have an implant placed. As time goes on and more bone has been lost, the bone replacement grafts become more expensive and involved.

Let’s take a real live situation. My father is 89 years old and had several teeth removed by East Texas country dentists when he was a young man. As he got older he got several bridges to replace the missing teeth. That was all that was available in the 50’s and 60’s. But the areas without teeth kept losing bone. About every 10 years he would have his bridges replaced as he was a severe clincher and grinder even though he flossed religiously. In 1995 one area he had too much damage to the retainer teeth than a bridge was no longer an option. Thus I placed 3 implants when he was about 75 years old to replace 5 teeth. He still has those today. But as he got older he did not want to travel anymore to Dallas and broke off another tooth as he was not wearing to bite appliance at night. He decided to get a removable partial due to costs as he is very frugal at age 87 and would have to get bone grafts to allow him to get implants in areas where he has had a bridge. This lasted 2 years before he broke off another tooth at the gum line. Now he is 89 years old and his partial will not fit since a tooth holding it in broke off. He has Alzheimer’s and thus cannot keep up with his removable partial. His favorite thing to do is eat as true for most men. When they loose that their health deteriates. To get implants to hold in teeth in this area he will need a sinus (bone) graft, but now issues of his age play a part. Is his immune system normal, how they will heal, etc? I contacted him with the best dentists in Houston since he will not travel and they are concerned about doing a bone graft at this age. I tell you this story so you can plan your own oral health. Today people live to be 90 easily. You should plan to have the best possible oral health at age 75-80, have all your areas without teeth restored with implants so all options will be open to you as you age. Your kids will be concerned with costs not your psychological well being. If you need another implant it will be a simple and less costly procedure. We all take our teeth for granted, but without them your senior years are often short lived. Make sure possible treatment will be easy and simple through proper planning.