I am 45 and have very bad teeth. I’m about to get rid of them and get dentures. I am excited about the idea of getting to plan how my teeth look and was hoping to get one gold tooth put there. My dentist acted like I was crazy. Is this a possibility or am I asking for too much?
Dina
Dear Dina,
Yes, it is possible to get a gold tooth placed in a denture. It sounds like this was more not to your dentist’s taste. If he or she is basing your treatment on how they like the appearance, they might not be the best dentist for you. Especially when it comes to the aesthetics of a smile, it is the patient who should have the final word.
You won’t be the first person to have a gold tooth placed in their dentures and you certainly won’t be the last. Some people want the entire tooth gold; some just want it outlined in gold; some want something completely different. In order to be certain you get what you want, it would be safer to bring your dentist an image of what you want the result to look like.
Dentures and Facial Collapse
The results of facial collapse
One thing your dentist should have mentioned is what happens when your teeth are removed. You are only 45 years old and the long-term consequences of dentures can be rather severe. When your teeth are removed, your body recognizes that. As a means of being as efficient with your body’s resources as possible, it takes the minerals that were in your jawbone to help keep the tooth roots in place and resorbs them to use in other places where it perceives the minerals will be more useful. This has the unfortunate effect of slowly shrinking your jawbone. After about ten or so years, you will no longer have enough jawbone left to retain your dentures.
The good news is that there is a way to prevent this. Instead of getting completely removable dentures, you can get implant overdentures. With this procedure, you will place between four to six dental implants in the arch. Then a set of dentures is anchored to the implants. Your body interprets the implant prosthetics as tooth roots and will preserve your bone structure as a result. There are other benefits too. For instance, no matter how well fitting removable dentures are, your chewing capacity will be reduced by 50%. With implant supported dentures, they are completely secure and you can eat whatever you want without anything moving around.
This blog is brought to you by Duluth, GA Dentist Dr. David Marion.