Losing Teeth Can Make You Look Older!

When I was a child a lot of people over forty years old looked old to me. Most of them had dentures and I thought dentures were a rite of passage as you crossed age 40. I did not know at the time that the thing I was looking at was lower face collapse. Yes, the first time the denture was made it was the best fitting denture because the patient still had a lot of alveolar bone (bone associated with the roots of the teeth). As the alveolar bone shrunk the denture settled further into the soft tissue and eventually the lower face shortens.

If you note the distance between the base of the nose and the tip of the chin in a more attractive person you will see that that dimension is not as shrunken as that in a person with a more aged look. Loss of a first molar or canine tooth compromises the chewing and facial support and presents many challenges to restoring a beautiful smile.

Implants provide dentists with the ability to replace the roots of teeth that are lost. Replacing teeth in the front of the mouth presents the unique challenges in making the persons smile look real. Specially trained dentists can help patients by augmenting bone through various bone grafting techniques.

Animals with teeth generally die shortly after losing all their teeth. Human beings are the exception because they have dentists to provide artificial teeth. Back teeth provide the support for biting forces while front teeth are made to incise or cut. Eye teeth or canines provide the transition from front to back, as well as protecting the back teeth from being ground down when one chews side to side.

Loss of back teeth leads to more pressure on the front teeth.  This pressure results in bucking out and spacing as people age, as well as the collapse of the face. So next time you have a broken back tooth, resist the temptation to say "it's just a back tooth, pull it out!" No future plastic surgery can help recapture attractive facial features with a collapsed lower face. Prevention in dentistry is always better easier and causes less discomfort than expecting a magical cure.