As you might know, there are several good tooth replacement options. Chief among them are standard dentures and dental implants. After all, these two choices can effectively restore your grin! Still, you might wonder: Can dentures preserve your jaw? The truth on this issue may affect your treatment decision. Sadly, though, the answer is that dentures won’t stop jawbone loss; only dental implants will. For more details on the matter, review this helpful summary from your Carrolton dentist.
Tooth Loss Erodes Your Jawbone
Truthfully, losing teeth doesn’t just affect your smile’s looks. It also (if left unaddressed) causes your jaw to lose bone tissue slowly.
The dilemma comes down to how the jawbone works. Normally, the latter relies on your teeth to maintain itself. The stimulation from chewing preserves its tissue. As such, losing your pearly whites deprives your jaw of stimulus. Your body will then break down your jawbone and reabsorb its tissue.
Even today’s research bolsters this idea. In a recent study from the Indian Journal of Dentistry, bone tissue near a missing tooth was found to erode quickly. Up to 25% of it would degrade within a year of an extraction.
Dentures Can’t Preserve Your Jaw
To be clear, dentures are very helpful prosthetics. You can trust them to restore your smile fully and seamlessly. Even so, the fact remains the same: they can’t preserve your jaw.
You see, dentures aren’t always steady. They only fit over your gums and stay secure with adhesives or suction. As a result, they normally don’t stimulate your jaw enough. That means dentures won’t keep your jawbone from slowly eroding.
Given these facts, dentures require a lot of follow-up work. The patient’s jawbones are still shrinking, so the prosthetics can get loose and need refitting. From there, a denture user may face many dental expenses.
Dental Implants = Jawbone Preservation
Luckily, dental implants work where dentures don’t. Their placement method lets them preserve your jaw for many years to come.
Remember, implants are set directly in your jaw. They then gradually fuse with it. Therefore, implants allow for forceful chewing that stimulates your jawbone. That means your bite force will be restored, and your face will stay full and firm.
All that said, don’t expect immediate preservation. Implants need six months or so to fuse with your jaw. During that period, you’ll want to be extra careful. Otherwise, you might delay recovery or cause implant failure through bad habits.
So, can dentures preserve your jaw? The basic answer is no. That being the case, see your local dentist for implants that can save your jawbone!
About the Practice
Celebration Family Dental is based in Carrolton, TX. Led by Drs. Shekhadiya, our practice seeks to give each patient excellent dental care. We thus provide preventive, cosmetic, and restorative options, as well as emergency dentistry. Naturally, this range of offerings also includes very effective dentures and dental implants! For more details or to book a visit, you can reach us on our website or by phone at (469)-694-3766.