Implant Surgery & Support
Jawbone loss is treatable — and preventable
Bone loss begins when teeth are lost and continues while they remain unreplaced. Modern techniques can rebuild that bone and restore implant candidacy. The key is early intervention.
How bone loss begins
Missing teeth are the primary cause. Your jawbone depends on mechanical force transmitted through tooth roots to maintain its density and volume. When that force stops, the bone resorbs — a process that starts within weeks of tooth loss and accelerates over time.
Advanced periodontal disease destroys supporting bone from below the gumline. Long-term conventional denture wear compounds the problem, because a denture transmits no force into the bone underneath it. Trauma, infection, and certain medications can also trigger loss.
What happens as bone deteriorates
The First Six Months
Significant bone can be lost within six months of an extraction. Loss is most dramatic in the first year, then slows — but never stops entirely.
By Five Years
As much as 25 percent of bone width can be gone. This is why prompt replacement of a missing tooth matters so much: the earlier you replace it, ideally with an implant, the more bone you keep.
Remaining Teeth Loosen
As loss progresses, the teeth still present lose their support and begin to move. Problems that started in one site spread across the arch.
Facial Changes
Lower jaw height diminishes and the vertical dimension of the face decreases, producing the collapsed, prematurely aged appearance associated with long-term tooth loss.
Denture Fit Deteriorates
A denture fitted to today's ridge will not fit the ridge in three years, because the ridge underneath it is still shrinking.
Implants Become Harder
Bone loss makes implant placement more difficult, and eventually impossible without grafting first.
What we do about it
We monitor your bone levels at every examination and work to prevent further deterioration rather than waiting for it to become a problem.
Where bone has already been lost, grafting, sinus lifts, and ridge augmentation rebuild the foundation, and implants then load that bone and hold it stable. The earlier in that sequence you act, the less reconstruction is required.
Questions about your procedure?
Book an assessment and we will measure your bone levels properly. Call (905) 479-7777.