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Dr Gordon is often asked "do I really need to save these teeth?". Approximately 18 million, or 17% of the adults in the United States are edentulous or without teeth. This means that for a lot of the 18 million edentulous people in the U.S. the only way for them to have teeth is with an upper and lower denture.

Upper and lower dentures can be made to replace missing natural teeth, and can create a very esthetic appearance. On the surface this sounds like a good way to get rid of broken down natural teeth and replacing them with denture teeth.

Upon further investigation, the down side of extracting all of your teeth to make way for a full denture is the loss of bone. When you have teeth in the arch, bone is stimulated and is maintained. Once the tooth or teeth are extracted the bone which once supported the teeth begins to resorbe into the body. Extracting otherwise restorable teeth can accelerate bone loss.

Once the bone loss begins, the 'foundation' that the denture sits on is now changing and the fit of the denture becomes inadequate to hold the denture in place. The loose denture now moves around on the lower jaw and creates sore spots that need constant adjustments. This irritation can include the soft tissue of the lower jaw, it can also include the nerve tissue of the lower jaw as well.

The significance of this is that today you have an excellent chance to live to be ninety five. If you have your teeth extracted at age seventy, by the end of your first year you have lost twenty-five percent of the supporting bone, and by the third year after your teeth have been extracted, you have lost sixty percent of the supporting bone. Because of bone stimulation , it is universally agreed in the medical and dental profession that you should keep your teeth for as long as possible.

Conservative dentistry over the years can save numerous teeth, thus protecting the supporting bone. It has been found that if a tooth is lost and a dental implant is put in its place, the bone is maintained by the stimulation of the implant. It should be the fundamental focus on each and every person, dentist, and dental practice to try to conserve natural teeth for as long as possible, thus conserving the natural bony support of the jaw. If the teeth are lost prematurely, dental implants should be placed as soon as possible to prevent the loss of bone support. In doing so you can make an implant support denture. By doing this, a patient can wear the denture until it is not needed any longer and in addition the process give the wearer approximately a ten year addition to their life.