At what age should You NOT get Dental Implants

Causes for Dental Implant Failure. What Cause Dental Implant Failure Wondering whether you are too old for dental implants? Request a consultation here: Book a consultation at our Manalapan office at the Link Below: https://implant.classicdentalarts.com... Or call our Manalapan office directly: 📲(732) 577-9000 🌐 Classicdentalarts.com Dr. Spiros Karas, General Dentist, Classic Dental Arts, Manalapan Township, New Jersey. There is no upper age limit for dental implants. The American Dental Association states that your health is more of a factor than your age, and the American Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons describes implants as an option for people of all ages, with one exception: children who are still growing. Not seniors. Children. So if age is not what decides it, what does? In this video Dr. Spiros Karas, a general dentist in New Jersey for over thirty years, walks through the short list he actually works from here at our Manalapan office. Is there an age limit for dental implants? No. Two national bodies say so from opposite directions. If a practice has turned you down and the reason given was your age, there should be a specific clinical finding behind it: a scan, a medication, a condition. If nobody can name it, that was not a clinical decision. What actually decides whether you are a candidate? Two things. Whether you can safely have ordinary dental treatment, and whether there is enough bone in the right place to hold an implant. The oral surgeons put the first one simply: if you can have routine dental treatment, you can generally have an implant placed. The bone is the part that changes over time, and it changes because of missing teeth rather than birthdays. Tooth roots keep the bone in the jaw alive and full, the same way using a muscle keeps it from shrinking. Which health conditions change the plan? Most of them change how treatment is planned rather than whether it happens. The ADA notes that chronic illness such as diabetes can interfere with healing. The oral surgeons note that patients with high blood pressure and diabetes usually still qualify. Both are true at once. What matters is how well a condition is controlled, not its name on a chart. Smoking is the exception worth knowing about: a large review put the odds of an implant failing at roughly double for smokers. That is one analysis, so hold it loosely, but it is a substantial one. Does healing really slow down with age? Some of it does. A review of ten year implant outcomes found what the researchers called a possible doubling of the risk of implant loss in the older age groups, once they accounted for patients lost to follow up. Possible is their word. That is an argument for planning carefully rather than for doing nothing, because bone continues to change under a missing tooth whether a decision has been made or not. What about blood thinners and osteoporosis medication? For most people neither one stops treatment, and neither should ever be changed on your own. The ADA states that for most patients it is unnecessary to alter anticoagulant or antiplatelet therapy before dental treatment, and that bleeding can be controlled with local measures. On osteoporosis medication, the ADA states that antiresorptive therapy does not appear to be a contraindication for dental implant placement, and puts the highest reliable estimate of jaw osteonecrosis at standard osteoporosis doses at approximately one tenth of one percent. On cancer dose therapy the same source puts it between one and ten percent, which is a different plan and a different conversation. Is it worth it at your age? On ten year survival the research does not fully agree with itself. One review reported about ninety six percent, then about ninety three percent once it accounted for patients lost along the way. The oral surgeons quote about ninety five percent. Most implants are still working at ten years, and the exact figure depends on who counted and how. Nobody can promise a lifetime. What would you be told at a consultation? Where your bone actually is, measured on a three dimensional scan rather than guessed at. What your medical history changes about the plan and the timing. And sometimes, that implants are not the right treatment for you, or not yet. We see patients from Manalapan, Freehold, Marlboro, Englishtown, Old Bridge, Howell, Millstone and across Monmouth County and New Jersey. Call: (732) 577-9000 Address: 123 NJ-33 East, Suite #104, Manalapan Township, NJ 07726 Dr. Spiros Karas, General Dentist, Classic Dental Arts, 123 NJ-33 East, Suite #104, Manalapan Township, NJ 07726. Phone (732) 577-9000. NJ license #22DI1608300. This video is educational and is not a substitute for an examination or personalized dental advice. Every mouth is different. Book a consultation to find out what applies to your situation.