This Is Why Your Bones Get Weaker Without Teeth
Losing your teeth can leave you feeling embarrassed or even humiliated. unfortunately, the problems don't stop there. They're just the beginning. If you lose teeth, chances are you'll lose bone mass in your jaw, too. This is how it happens.
How Teeth Help
Teeth play an integral role in helping you to eat, chew, and speak on a daily basis. However, that's not their only job. The remainder of their role goes on under the surface where you can't see it.
As you probably know, your teeth are a lot longer than they appear to be. Part of them is hidden under the surface of your gums. The teeth actually extend all the way down into the bone of the jaw and are partially supported by your jaw.
The teeth return the favor to the jaw by allowing pressure from your bite to spread into the jaw. This might sound like it's not a good thing, but it actually is. Pressure causes bones to grow new healthy bone cells that replace old ones that are becoming weak and brittle. So every bite you take - when you have your teeth - stimulates bone growth and keeps your jaw strong.
When They're Gone
Unfortunately, when you lose teeth you also lose this wonderful result. Chewing on the surface of your gums can't transfer pressure anywhere near as far as it would if you still had all of your teeth.
This problem can happen to people who have only lost one tooth or have lost as many as all of them. When you're only missing a few teeth, it effectively creates pockets of weakness in the jaw where it becomes more brittle and susceptible to breaks and fractures. However, if you're missing all or nearly all of your teeth, you can expect that the entire jaw will weaken evenly and will become visibly thinner as a result. This is part of the reason why the elderly sometimes have weaker-looking jawlines than their younger counterparts.
Reversing the Effects
The good news is, even if you lost your teeth ages ago, that doesn't mean that all hope is lost. The solution here is dental implants because they are designed to work like real teeth. The crown sits on top, while the titanium peg underneath it acts as an artificial root. This allows pressure to transfer just as well as with real teeth, stimulating bone growth again. As a result, people who get dental implants can expect to see and feel their jawbones become stronger again over time.
If you're interested in learning more, contact local dental implant services.