{"id":1367,"date":"2025-03-31T22:41:31","date_gmt":"2025-04-01T03:41:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.regiondental.com\/blog\/?p=1367"},"modified":"2025-03-31T22:41:31","modified_gmt":"2025-04-01T03:41:31","slug":"should-i-save-my-last-two-upper-teeth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.regiondental.com\/blog\/should-i-save-my-last-two-upper-teeth\/","title":{"rendered":"Should I Save My Last Two Upper Teeth?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have almost all my bottom teeth. My upper teeth are a completely different story. I’m losing three more, which will pretty much leave me with just the upper two front teeth. Here’s the thing. I’m currently wearing two partial dentures and hate them. I can’t even eat with them and I’m mostly using just those two front teeth. When I’m eating something that requires back teeth, I will wear the dentures then, but only then. My dentist suggested I might be happier with complete upper dentures. I thought it was always best to keep your natural teeth. What do you recommend?<\/p>\n

Evelyn<\/p>\n\n

Dear Evelyn,<\/p>\n

\"dentures\"<\/p>\n

I want to qualify this with two important statements. First, I haven’t examined your teeth, so I can only base my advice on what you’ve written above. Second, my advice would be completely different if you were talking about your bottom teeth. When you are talking about dentures, the upper teeth are held in by suction. However the lower teeth rest on your jawbone. <\/p>\n

When your teeth are removed, your body recognizes that and will immediately begin resorbing the minerals in your jawbone to use elsewhere in your body. The reason it does this is because it knows you do not need to retain your teeth roots any longer. The unfortunate side effect is that your jawbone slowly shrinks. Eventually, you will not have enough of a jawbone to even keep in your dentures. In dental circles, this is known as facial collapse.<\/p>\n

The way to prevent this is by placing dental implants<\/a> to anchor the dentures to. The dental implants will serve as prosthetic teeth roots and signal to your body that you still have teeth and will therefore preserve the jawbone. <\/p>\n

While most of the time I am a huge proponent of saving as much natural tooth structure as possible, this is a unique case. Because your upper denture is held in by suction, it does not need that jawbone. Plus, I doubt those upper two teeth will last long if that is the only thing you are eating with most of the time. I think you’ll be much more comfortable with full dentures<\/a> in this case. <\/p>\n

This blog is brought to you by Tulsa Dentist<\/a> Dr. Ryan Noah.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have almost all my bottom teeth. My upper teeth are a completely different story. I’m losing three more, which will pretty much leave me with just the upper two front teeth. Here’s the thing. I’m currently wearing two partial dentures and hate them. 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