Missing Teeth Not Restored
When a patient comes into the office with missing teeth, we explain the negative effects of their situation in a simple, common sense manner:
There are two reasons for having teeth: to look good and to chew good. The teeth have a lot of work to do, and so there should be 28 to 32 teeth, in the right places, to do that work.
Yes, I know.
If the the teeth are missing, like those two front teeth, the mouth and face don’t look right.
I can see that, Doc.
Likewise, if huge powerful molars are missing, the teeth don’t work well, and yet, little else has changed.
What do you mean?
You see, Janet, the muscles, the bone, tendons and vessels are still there, and you still want to chew up your food before you swallow. But you can’t. The teeth are gone, but you still need to chew.
I never thought of it that way.
So, this need and physical workload is dumped onto the remaining teeth. A person with only one side to chew on goes to the other side, or worse, to front teeth that are not designed to chew but to cut and tear food apart.
Well, I chew with my front teeth, and…
Yes, and they must make up for those missing back teeth. See how they’re so worn and how they stick out now? And how the bone around them has receded so much? The cause of all that is your missing teeth. The remaining teeth have to work too much, and soon you have gum disease.
You know Doc, that sure makes sense.
Patients readily understand the sense of this, and that restoring teeth is the dentist’s job. Yet, what do we tell a patient who has routinely had their teeth restored with modern dental care, has taken good care of their teeth, has PERIODONTAL DISEASE, and faces gum surgeries?
One alternative is to look for other causes. Dental work may restore most of a person’s missing teeth, but not to 100% of their original efficiency. If dentistry restores 80–90% of the patient’s appearance and function of their teeth, we are doing quite well. Even the best dentistry can restore a great deal of the normality that once was there for the patient. But not all of it. This may be hard to accept. There’s more.
Other Areas of Concern: