I’ve recently been told that I have a severe calcium deficiency. While I have always had a problem with my teeth, this seems to have tipped them over the edge. My dentist thinks I should just extract the rest of them. I’m only 35. Way too young to have dentures. I’m also way too poor to afford dental implants. Is there another option between these two?
Carol
Dear Carol,
Getting Dental Implants Will Prevent Facial Collapse
Did your dentist tell you that the calcium deficiency is why your teeth are having problems? It’s not. Once your teeth are developed, then that is it. They are developed. A calcium deficiency as an adult will not impact them. It would have to have taken place during their development.
Every dentist varies in their willingness to work hard in order to save teeth that are having trouble. My first suggestion for you is that you get a second opinion on the state of your teeth. Find out how many are savable because the problem isn’t your calcium deficiency. What that can cause is nerve damage or osteoporosis.
If by some chance your teeth can’t be saved, which I doubt, then you would want to do what you could to get dental implants, even if you have to start small, like with snap-on dentures. When you wear removable dentures your body recognizes that there aren’t teeth to support so it will resorb the minerals in your body to use elsewhere. Eventually, after about ten years or so, you would no longer have enough jaw bone to even keep in your dentures. This is known in dental circles as facial collapse.
Having dental implants placed signals to your body that you have teeth. Because of that, it will leave your jawbone in place because it recognizes the implants as teeth roots.
This blog is brought to you by a friendly dentist in Libertyville, Dr. David Potts.