Many elderly individuals experience tooth loss, which can hinder their ability to chew food properly. This often leads to poor nutrient absorption and digestive issues, such as indigestion.

Moreover, missing teeth can contribute to other health problems that may adversely affect the well-being of older adults. In addressing the issue of tooth loss, dental implants represent one of the most effective techniques available for restoring missing teeth.

However, many elderly patients have concerns regarding dental implants: Is it too risky to undergo dental procedures at an advanced age? Should they replace all missing teeth with implants? While removable dentures are also a viable option, dental implants tend to be more expensive—are they truly necessary?

In response to these inquiries, we will address each question in detail.

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Can old people have teeth planted?

There is no absolute upper age limit for dental implants. In other words, individuals ranging from fully developed maxillofacial adults aged 18 to seniors in their 70s or 80s can undergo dental implant procedures. (The prerequisite is that the periodontal condition allows for it and the overall physical health is satisfactory.)

Many elderly people have "three high" diseases, such as diabetes and heart disease, and are worried that their medical condition or medication will affect their operation. In fact, as long as the patient under the guidance of the doctor to adjust the body to a suitable state, moderate adjustment of the drug, especially in the week before the operation to stop aspirin drugs, and then after the evaluation of professional doctors, it is possible to accept dental implant surgery.

Does dental implantation mean replacing as many teeth as are missing?

·Many patients sometimes lose multiple teeth in a row, but it is not always necessary to replace a tooth in each missing area.

·For example, some patients have four missing teeth, but only two teeth need to be implanted to serve the function of the previous four teeth. This is like building a bridge, as long as there are solid piers on both sides, there is no need to build piers in the middle.

·Clinically, for patients with all "laid off" upper or lower teeth, dentists can plant dental implants at 6 points in the upper or lower jaw to achieve the function of the previous upper or lower jaw teeth (12 to 14 teeth) Therefore, dental implants are not "a turnip and a pit", and not every missing tooth location needs dental implants.

Which is better, movable dentures or implants?

Movable dentures do not perform as well as implants

The high price of dental implants, many old people feel too expensive do not want to try, would rather wear dentures, in fact, dentures have a lot of drawbacks:

·Movable dentures have poor retaining stability and are easy to loosen. At the same time, movable dentures mainly rely on the mucous membrane and alveolar bone below the missing teeth to support the occlusal force, which is easy to lead to the gradual atrophy of the gums, especially for the elderly who wear movable dentures all the year round, the alveolar bone may atrophy to be completely flat, resulting in the denture can not be fixed, affecting the normal diet.

·Compared with movable dentures, implant teeth are fixed repair, do not need to be removed and worn, and have a longer service life. In addition, implant teeth can effectively prevent alveolar bone atrophy, and perform significantly better than movable dentures in restoring the chewing function of teeth and maintaining oral physiological health.

The advantages and disadvantages of implanted teeth for the elderly:

Advantages:

·Comfortable and convenient:

They have no foreign body sensation in the mouth, are comfortable and convenient, and do not need to be removed and worn, and can be cleaned like normal teeth.

·Powerful:

Dental implants are known as the "third set of human teeth", which can restore more than 90% of the chewing function, which is much better than other dental prostheses, and many nuts and meats that are afraid to eat when wearing dentures can be easily chewed, and the use of real teeth can be obtained. The chewing function is restored, and the gastrointestinal tract can naturally reduce the burden.

Safe and stable:

The implants selected for dental implants are pure titanium metal with excellent bone compatibility and high safety. After bone bonding process, they are closely combined with alveolar bone, which can be stable like real teeth and withstand normal chewing force.

Disadvantages:

·The failure rate is higher than that of young people:

With the increase of age, the gum will shrink, and the implant is not tightly combined with the bone, which is easy to lead to the loosening of the implant, or even the loss of the implant, although the bone transplant surgery, the use of the implant is not so long.

·The recovery time is relatively long:

Because the body function of the elderly is worse than that of the young, no matter what surgery is done, it is naturally slower to recover this area.

·There are restrictions:

If the elderly suffer from diabetes, high blood pressure, heart disease, cerebrovascular and other systemic diseases, it is not suitable for dental implants. If you want to do dental implants, you must first control these diseases and ensure that there is no inflammation in the mouth before you can perform dental implants. Otherwise, it will lead to the failure of dental implant surgery.

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What do the elderly need to pay attention to implanted teeth?

·To do a body and oral examination:

Because we said above, there are restrictions for the elderly to plant teeth, mainly considering their physical condition.

Dental implants are not easy to do, there are systemic diseases, such as high blood pressure, high blood sugar, etc., will affect wound healing, and the alveolar bone height, to meet a certain amount of bone, otherwise how to fix the implant, of course, you can also implant after bone grafting.

·Carefully choose a doctor:

Because the general situation of missing teeth in the elderly is complex, which has high technical and professional requirements for doctors, so to the regular dental institutions with dental qualifications, find the right dentist, follow the doctor's advice, and actively cooperate, can also greatly improve the success rate and implant effect.

·Postoperative communication is very important:

Professional implant and repair doctors will develop reasonable and perfect treatment plans according to the different conditions and needs of each patient, so that the advantages of dental implants can be played and unnecessary risks can be avoided.

·Be sure to review:

The elderly should go to the hospital every six months after dental implant surgery and insert the porcelain crown, and then slowly increase the hardness of the food after inserting the porcelain crown.