I had my remaining teeth removed In August 2018. Obviously, since having my teeth removed my gums have naturally shrunk. That has meant I have so far had 3 sets of dentures due to the gum shrinkage.
Now it has been 14 months since my teeth were removed will my gums carry on shrinking or should that have stopped by now?
Hi ennogs,
Your gum shrinks along with bone resorption after teeth removed. Most of the bone resorption happens in the first 6 months after teeth are removed, but this will continue throughout the lifetime at a much slower rate (around 0.05-0.2mm/year, this can also vary between each individual). The lower jaw bone resorption will be more than the upper jaw bone resorption.
If dentures are not fitting well, one of the alternatives is to do reline, but reline normally only lasts 1-2 years. So frequent visit to the dentist (around once a year) is required to change reline.
A denture adhesive may also help, but must always be removed/clean thoroughly after removal of the denture.
Or you can always have new sets of dentures if you are not satisfied with the current sets or reline. Dentures also take time to adapt, some can adapt to them in a few weeks, while others take years to adapt to. The lower dentures are more difficult to adapt to than the upper dentures, because of the anatomical structures (movable tongue, cheeks, etc) and more bone resorptions.
If you are really struggling with the dentures you have, another alternative is to have implant overdentures but that does not mean they will completely improve the fitting. This is just an alternative or something to try out but does not mean it will solve the problem. Also, the bone resorption will only be slowed in area where the implants have inserted (normally 2-4 implants for overdentures in lower and in the upper jaw). Besides, this has a lot of things to consider (e.g. cost, surgical risk, general health conditions) and require a lot of maintenance as well.
Hope this helps.
