People never seem to be as concerned about losing a back tooth as they are about losing a front tooth. But back teeth also count!! You need your back teeth so you can chew properly. Back teeth also protect the front teeth, and they help to maintain your facial structure. If even one back tooth is missing, the adjacent teeth will drift to close the space; they may loosen and a pocket of infection may form. The opposing teeth may erupt into the open space. Your bite will start to collapse. The front teeth will begin to splay forward.

The following patient was missing all of her back teeth. She was putting a lot of stress on her front teeth because she didn't have back teeth for chewing. The front teeth were beginning to splay forward. She elected to have implants placed. We placed four implants on the top and two on the bottom and gave her new front crowns - a great result and a very happy patient:

Missing back teeth

Replaced with implant crowns

The following patient lost her lower back teeth, and consequently the top teeth have super-erupted into the space. This weakens the top teeth and they become susceptible to loss. We did some periodontal crown lengthening and placed five crowns on the top teeth in order to restore them to their proper position. Four implants were also placed on the bottom and will soon be uncovered so implant crowns can be placed: