Can You Be Too Old To Have Dental Implants?

Tooth replacement in later life

With rapid advances in science and medicine, we are generally living to be older than the generations before us. Whilst this is an obvious ‘plus’, it does bring with it challenges for our general and oral health. Especially with today’s high sugar diet, growing older means that we are more exposed to the risk of losing teeth, and may well need to look at our options to replace them.

Whilst dentures are still widely used, anyone who has had dental implants will tell you that they offer the best solution for lost teeth, bringing strength and longevity, as well as a natural look and feel.

Bone loss and osteoporosis

Whilst it is true that we generally lose bone mass as we get older, this does not mean that dental implant placement is not possible. Whilst there is a chance that bone density in the jawbone may be reduced in old age, this can often be restored using bone augmentation, or bone grafting. Whilst this does require a little extra time before the implant integration process can proceed, it can offer a better final outcome for most patients, than traditional dentures.

Benefits

Whilst older people may be less concerned about their appearance that younger people, most of us would still like to have an attractive smile. Dental implants enable a patient to have this as well as confidence that the replacement teeth will not move around when eating or during conversation. One of the biggest benefits of implants for older patients though, is the ability to eat a varied diet and not feel restricted because their teeth won’t be able to cope. In fact, if you want to chew toffees with your implants, feel free, they will be able to cope with it perfectly well, something we couldn’t say for sure about dentures!

Eating a varied diet will enable us to have a better chance of staying healthy for longer and living a fulfilling life well into old age.

Considerations

Because of the invasive nature of a dental implant procedure, we will discuss your medical history with you before any treatment starts. Providing that there are no serious health concerns, you are able to have the treatment either with or without a sedative. These can help to reduce any stress that you might feel about the procedure.

Following treatment, it is very important that you continue to keep your teeth and gums clean. We also recommend that you visit our hygienist as gum disease and peri-implantitis can threaten implant security if they take hold. We will advise a full aftercare regimen for your new implants during our discussions with you.

If you are an elderly patient, living in the Ashby or Burton area, or perhaps a carer of one, and would like to discuss oral health matters with us, please call Alexandra Dental Care on 01283 216347.

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