Can You Get Dental Implants After Being in Denture for Over 10 Years?

I have been in dentures for over ten years. I’d always hoped to get dental implants instead, but it took me longer than expected to save up the money for them. Is it too late at this point?

Olivia

Dear Olivia,

Technically, as long your general health is okay, it is never too late to get dental implants. However, once you have been in dentures for some time, you will very likely need an additional procedure known as bone grafting. This is because as soon as your teeth were removed, your body began to resorb the minerals in your jawbone in order to use them elsewhere in your body where they will be more useful.

That bone is necessary in order to secure the dental implants. A bone grafting procedure will rebuild all the bone you’ve lost from resorption. This will be essential whether you get dental implants or not because after a number of years you will no longer have enough bone left to even keep your dentures in place. When you lose that much bone, it is known as facial collapse. Not only does it make it impossible for them to stay in, but it ages the patient’s appearance by decades.

After you’ve healed from the bone grafting, then it will be safe to move on to the dental implants. Before you anchor the dentures to them, you will need to leave enough time for the bone to integrate with the implants. This will ensure they are perfectly secure and stable.

Once you have implant supported dentures you will find your quality of life increases dramatically. Even the best fitting dentures will reduce your chewing capacity by 50%. You will once again be able to eat anything you want and will never have to worry about facial collapse.

This blog is brought to you by Naples Dentist Dr. Andrea Cameron.