Is it normal for the elderly to lose teeth? It should be no big deal of losing just one tooth, right?

Tooth loss doesn’t do any harm, so there’s no need to treat it. Just let it be. If you ever think like that, you could be totally wrong! It may seem no big deal of losing a tooth, but in fact it will bring great harms. Let’s take a look below.

The loss of one tooth will damage the completeness of the dentition. To put it simple, since the teeth are aligned with one another closely, the loss of one tooth will give the two beside it a chance to occupy the open space, resulting in tilting or dislocated teeth, or malocclusion, etc.

The tooth loss, especially the loss of back teeth will affect the masticatory function, as the back teeth play an important role in mastication. Tooth loss will cause you to develop the habit of chewing food on only one side, and will also affect the absorption and digestion of food.

If a tooth has been lost for a long time, the alveolar bone tissues around the original tooth will be resorbed, just like the “use and disuse theory”. The resorption of the alveolar bone will be bad for the future insertion of the artificial tooth. For example, in the case of implantation, bone grafting is required if there’s no enough alveolar bone.

If the lost tooth leaves a relatively big space, food will easily get caught while you’re eating. As a result, the mealtime will become the most awkward time to you. And you have to get the stuck food out constantly, which is very annoying.

Once a tooth falls off, the teeth on the two sides without its support will become tilting, loose, and even come off, just like the saying goes, “a lost tooth brings about two more loss”.

Tooth loss will affect the facial appearance, making you look older than actual age. Teeth provide support to the corner of mouth and facial form. If you lose multiple teeth, you may look much older than your peers.

The loss of one tooth or multiple teeth will impose impact on the articulation, especially the loss of the anterior teeth which will affect the normal communication by making you speak indistinctly or with lisp.

The loss of tooth may impose some negative psychological impact on you, like lack of confidence, depression or fear of social communication, etc.

Therefore, the doctors in Shenzhen AKJ Dental Hospital suggest, no matter how long and how many you have lost the teeth, you’d better go to see a doctor to select the right artificial tooth that suit you, make tailored tooth restoration plan, and have your teeth restored in timely manner. Otherwise, in the long run, you may suffer from loss of more teeth, which will increase the difficulty, cost, time and efforts for teeth restoration.  

Please feel free to contact me if there’s any dental problem (WeChat ID: aiyuan325180).