Bone Volume After Tooth Loss

What happens to your bone after you lost a tooth? Does it stay exactly the same or are there any changes ? Learn all you need to know!

What happens to your bone after you lost a tooth? Does it stay exactly the same or are there any changes ? Learn all you need to know!

The most obvious effect of missing teeth is aesthetic.Believe it or not, it’s not so much about teeth as it is about bone, which needs stimulation to maintain its form and density.

When a tooth is lost, the lack of stimulation causes loss of alveolar structure — its external width, then height, and ultimately volume. As alveolar process loses width and height,gum tissue also gradually decreases. And it doesn’t stop there. After alveolar process is lost, the bone beneath it, basal bone  also begins to resorb (melt away). The distance from nose to chin decreases and with it, the lower third of the face partially collapses.

What can be done to replace missing teeth and avoid debilitating alveolar process loss?

That depends on how many teeth have been lost. A treatment option to replace a single missing back tooth is a single-tooth implant.

Athina Tsiorva

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