Implant Surgery & Support
Jawbone loss & deterioration
When teeth are lost, the jawbone beneath them begins to deteriorate. This is not a rare complication — it is a predictable biological process, and it can be planned for.
Why it happens
The jawbone requires stimulation from tooth roots to maintain its density. Without that stimulation, bone begins resorbing within weeks of tooth loss.
Conventional dentures accelerate the problem rather than slowing it, because they rest on gum tissue and provide no root-level stimulation at all — while the pressure they exert can hasten resorption.
The main causes
Missing Teeth
Up to 25 percent of bone width can be lost within five years of losing a tooth, with the steepest decline in the first twelve months.
Denture Wear
Continuous resorption beneath a denture, producing the familiar cycle of loosening, relining, and loosening again.
Periodontal Disease
Destroys the supporting bone structure directly, often across multiple teeth at once.
Tooth Extraction
The most common trigger, with rapid loss in the first year — which is why socket preservation at the time of extraction is so valuable.
What it looks like from the outside
Bone loss produces facial collapse: the lower face shortens, lips thin, and cheeks hollow. The effect makes patients look years older than they are, and it is caused by structure rather than skin.
It is also the change patients find hardest to accept, because unlike a missing tooth it cannot be hidden by not smiling.
Treatment options
Socket Preservation
A bone graft placed immediately after extraction, before resorption starts. The simplest and cheapest intervention available, and the one most often missed.
Sinus Lift
Restores upper jaw height beneath the maxillary sinus where bone has been lost from below and the sinus has expanded from above.
Ridge Augmentation
Rebuilds collapsed ridges to the width and height an implant requires.
Related procedures & comparisons
Questions about your procedure?
Book an assessment and we will measure exactly what has been lost and what can be rebuilt. Call (905) 479-7777.