Westpark Helpful Dental Articles
Dental Implants Provide Senior Citizens with Lifestyle Benefits
Many dental patients come to West Park Dental convinced that they are too old to have dental implants. I respond by asking a 70-year-old patient, for example, if they feel old and I ask about their overall health. When they say they do not consider themselves to be old and that they are in good health, then I remind them that they could live for another 20 or 25 years. Their quality of life could improve and be sustained for the duration if they have dental implants.
We discuss how important it is to have comfortable, functioning teeth—to be able to enjoy food and not have dentures that are removed and put back in on a daily basis. Today we have dental implant technology available that we can provide to the patient. I give the patient open ended questions to think about and I listen to their responses, before telling them what we can actually do for them and what it would take to accomplish their goals. It is up to the patient to decide if they would like to take advantage of this technology or not at this point in their lives, and the dental implant benefit message resonates very well with patients.
Age, as a solitary factor, would not stop somebody from having implants. The oldest patients that had implants placed at West Park Dental was 93 years old and she is doing very well, two years later. At the time she was very active and still dating—God bless her—and she certainly did not want to be concerned about her denture coming out of her mouth unexpectedly. This was the vanity side of her that chose to take advantage of modern dental technology and she went ahead with dental implant placement. This patient made a very good choice.
Dr. Michael E. Gallagher
West Park Dental
Cleveland, OH
New Patients Welcome
www.westparksmiles.com
Posted 09/14/2020
