Posted by writeradmin
I have spent my entire savings trying to stay on top of my oral health. I’ve not nothing left and my teeth are still crumbling. My dentist insists I get dental implants, but they are way out of my budget. What am I supposed to do, sell my house? What if all I can afford is dentures?
Sara Jane
Dear Sara Jane,
I am sorry for all that you are going through. First, let me assure you that your dentist cannot insist you do anything. Plus, he is ethically obligated to give you all of your options. It appears that he is only giving you one.
Obviously, you know about completely removable dentures. However, I want you to completely understand the severity of your situation. While you may have heard that removable dentures can be annoying and make it difficult to eat, there is a much more important issue that you need to know about.
When your teeth are removed, your body begins to resorb the minerals in your jawbone because it recognizes that you no longer have any teeth to support and it wants to be as efficient as possible with its resources. It takes those resorbed minerals and disperses them into places where your body could best use them.
This has the unfortunate side effect of slowly shrinking your jawbone. After ten or so years, you will no longer have enough of your jawbone left in order to keep your dentures in your mouth. This is known as facial collapse in dental circles.
Getting dental implants, prevents this from happening because the implants are like prosthetic tooth roots signaling to your body that you still need those minerals in your jawbone. Therefore, it leaves your jaw bone intact.
If you can’t afford full dental implants, see about getting a couple of mini implants for snap on dentures. It will at least secure your dentures and preserve your bone in that area while you save up. When you are ready, you will probably need bone grafting done in order for you to be able to secure implants for implant supported dentures.
This blog is brought to you by a compassionate dentist in Baton Rouge Dr. John Theriot.