Dentures. Why do so many olde people have dentures?

[Fordian]

It has occurred to me a couple of times.

I work in health care and see The Ages of Dentition 😊

No one under 40 has a filling. Everyone from 40-70 has a face like a Cornish tin mine. Everyone older has dentures.

Why?

Please, I'm not looking for any 'Well, I'm 80 with a full set of natural teeth'- I'm generalising 😂

But given that the older folk didn't encounter a grain of sugar on their entire youth (if you were to believe my mother, RIP, b. 1933)... why?

What changed? What factors came into play?

Yep. My 85 year old aunty had all her teeth out for dentures as her 21st birthday present from her parents.

I'm 60 and have three dental implants which are great. Funnily enough I had a full dental assessment yesterday at a specialist dentist and she showed mr the 5 teeth that were badly cracked and need special fillings. Cracked teeth cause sloe bacterial build up in the cracks leading to massive tooth loss. They are caused by amalgam fillings. Amalgam is or was good because they can last for 40 years. However the amalgam does not move but the natural teeth do. This causes cracks that cannot be cleaned and eventual toothless. My dentist recommends getting rid of the amalgam and changing them for more natural flexible fillings. That doesn't explain the whole post but maybe part of it. Also people would rather let a tooth fall out than pay the £500 to £600 cost of getting a cracked tooth repaired.

Joining the list of folks who had drill happy NHS dentists in the 1970s/80s

This is me for sure. Our dentists were always young Irishmen straight out of the Dublin School of Dentistry who clearly liked to practice their craft on us.

I had no issues with my adult teeth until the age of 12 then a shitload of fillings until I went to uni and I have had NO new fillings since (am mid 50s) - only repairs and refills of old ones.

I think this seems a sweeping SM TBH. At a recent Dental appt ,3 young women (early 20s perhaps) were waiting for their friend to come out .She was having 5 teeth out! Also many children have appalling problems esp in deprived areas .Recently a health team usually working abroad went to a poor area in Manchester. as Childrens teeth there were in a very bad state.Many people cannot access NHS dentists either ! As a child I was allowed some sweets ,but regular teeth brushing was expected ,and we had a new toothbrush every 6 weeks ! Also with the amount of fast food consumed and fizzy drinks today this further erodes enamel.

@Shehasadiamondinthesky

"Also people would rather let a tooth fall out than pay the £500 to £600 cost of getting a cracked tooth repaired."

I'm told there are people who have more than one tooth, and find it difficult to scrape enough money together to pay the gas bill.

Where do they fit in your "would rather let a tooth fall out" opinion?

I think it's pretty obvious what I meant, it isn't a choice. I can't afford to have all mine down even though I have a good job, i don't have thousands of pounds to spare. I've had to have the 4 back ones pulled.

What does "a face like a Cornish tin mine" mean? Seeing as I fell into the age category you're insulting with this, I'd appreciate knowing

I'm guessing a bit sunken or crater I sh but not a nice analogy.

A number of reasons most of which have already been mentioned, some will I course be particularly true for those that grew up poor:

Lack of good nutrition
Lack of access to free dental care
Lack of money for toothbrushes/toothpaste
Fluoride didn't start getting added to the water until the 60's
High sugar consumption as it was cheap and filling

My own parents both full dentures by their 40's grew up poor so there was barely money for food let alone toothpaste etc! They certainly wouldn't have flossed or used mouthwash!

Dairy products were not super cheap/available

Going to the dentist was difficult as they were only open "office hours" and their parents all worked full time and then some! So annual check ups etc didn't occur they only went if severe pain/infection

Mine are a mess and need sorted, that's a combination of dental care not being prioritised at home, my own health issues (mainly mh) impacting on self care plus I was in a car accident some years ago and some of my teeth were lost/damaged through that and I'm still getting issues as a result. One of my front teeth I think has had it, it was cracked in the accident but it's now deteriorating more

Even now some families toothbrush/toothpaste may be beyond their budget it's one of the things my local food bank regularly asks for

@BungleandGeorge is also right that smoking buggers teeth too, both my parents were heavy smokers until very recently. Mum in her mid 70's now much more of their generation smoked from quite young ages

Sorry, but that was down to bad parenting I'm afraid

What a nasty and ill informed comment!

Lots of wc parents simply couldn't afford the time off work to take dc for check ups! Indeed they could have even been risking their jobs altogether and where would that have left their families?!

Firstly they are older, they've had longer to do the damage. More years of wear/erosion. More likely to be on medications that cause dry mouth, or have medical problems that lead to dry mouth/dental decay. Worsening dexterity as we age, so they struggle to maintain oral hygiene in the same way, or if they are cared for by others oral care is often very poor.

Also v true. The teeth and gums have been through more!

When I was a child in the 1960s very few mums worked full time, so I'm not convinced that few parents had the time to take their children to the dentist.

My gps with dentures very much wc took my dm and du to the dentist in the 40s and 50s and both worked

From Orwell, "The Road to Wigan Pier" (1937):

"The miner's family spend only ten pence a week on green vegetables and ten pence half-penny on milk (remember that one of them is a child less than three years old), and nothing on fruit; but they spend one and nine on sugar (about eight pounds of sugar, that is) and a shilling on tea. The half-crown spent on meat might represent a small joint and the materials for a stew; probably as often as not it would represent four or five tins of bully beef. The basis of their diet, therefore, is white bread and margarine, corned beef, sugared tea, and potatoes - an appalling diet."

I had regular dental checkups all through my childhood (born mid 50s) and my teeth are good and strong now, but I had loads of fillings when I was a kid, it seemed completely normal. I ate as many sweets as I could get my hands on, and was very lazy about brushing.

The basis of their diet, therefore, is white bread and margarine, corned beef, sugared tea, and potatoes - an appalling diet."

That's not much different, nutritionally from Mac and fries with Coke. Nothing changes.

@Pigeontown

Feeling so angry/sad that so many of us had our perfect teeth trashed by dentists filling for cash in 70s and 80s... would love to know if this has ever been proven or is a known thing. I have an Australian friend of same age (50) with only one filling. Identical childhood (apart from weather) and no special anything although I think fluoride might have been added to water sooner but certainly she had lots of sweets squash and ice lollies as a child. I'm glad I moved away and got good dentistry because my dps stayed with Mr dodgy dentist for another 15 years and their teeth are terrible in old age. Constant problems with old fillings and crowns. My dc have no fillings and are teens. This type of thing will be on the way back (unnescessary medical procedures of all kinds) when NHS privatised fully so watch out!!

I spoke to my own dentist about this a few years ago, and he confirmed that, yes, the dentists of the 70's and 80's WERE paid per filling! I was horrified, and am a victim of that myself. I am 53 and went for regular 6 month check-ups (still do, apart from 2020) and I have an over-riding memory of always having to have fillings, and I certainly did not have a bad, sugary diet.

I would love to get them all changed to white ones, but can't afford that, so I will still have to remain Cornwall-Tin-Mine-Mouthed!!

My mum was born in 1927 and had all her teeth extracted in her early 30's. She said that it was down to peridontal disease, but I am now wondering if maybe there was a problem with a couple of teeth, but they just decided to whip them all out anyway!

My daughters are in their early 20s and neither of them have any fillings.
I am so glad that dentistry has improved over the years, but do worry how long there will still actually be NHS dentists around.

I would love to get them all changed to white ones, but can't afford that, so I will still have to remain Cornwall-Tin-Mine-Mouthed!!

Me too, but that would involve further damaging the teeth. It is a bit of a no win.

I also had a dentist who liked to practise gold fillings so I have those too. The ones that didn't fail early on seem to have weathered well. However, it looks 😖

I've had most of mine re-done in white, but the dentist says drilling into teeth that have not (yet) gone wrong is causing unnecessary damage, so he disparages cosmetic change.

Long ago I had a crown, and the dentist said "do you want yellow gold, or white?" I asked for white thinking he meant tooth-coloured, but it's white gold. Luckily it's inconspicuous at the back.

My mum was in a Japanese camp for 3.5 years so dental hygiene and good food wasn't a priority. She was 5 when she was freed.

My father has full dentures and always has had. He must have had them all out before he was 40. My mum's got the vast majority of her teeth. Her mum had all of hers taken out as a 21st birthday present in 1923.

Dental hygiene was different in the past. People used to brush once a day, there wasn't floss, and pre NHS only those who had money went to a dentist unless it was urgent.

Even in the 70s, it was just a case of brushing. I didn't know it was better to brush twice a day until I was in my teens. I didn't live in a very enlightened part of the country, and I had older parents with out of date info about teeth. My first dentist was an alcoholic who removed a tooth without anaesthetic and left me bleeding when I was 5. It was quite usual to have fillings. NHS dentists had no incentive to up their game.

Totally different to today.

Im 60. no check ups. No preventative dentistry. My parents thought sugar gave you energy. Me and my DBs and DS have mouths full of fillings, crowns and bridges. Over the years some of my teeth have loosened due to osteoporosis, some root canal fillings failed and I have about 6 teeth missing. I am getting to the stage of needing dentures. My DC born in the 80s had regular check ups, sweets were limited to one day a week. One has one filling, the other none.

I didn't realise that it was standard to use gold for fillings - I thought that was for those with a lot of money!!

Glad I haven't had white fillings then! I would like my teeth to last as long as possible!

I do remember the school dentist and them giving us 'disclosing tablets',
Red tablets that you chewed to show up where there was plaque remaining on your teeth after you had brushed.

@user1493494961

I'm a child of the 50s, from a large family. Quite often we didn't have any toothpaste and cleaned our teeth with salt. When we did have tooth paste, it was a sort of paste in a flat tin, nothing like we use today. However, we did have regular dental check-ups.

My mum used to brush her teeth with soot from the chimney to make them whiter. They did have toothpaste, this was just a fashion thing in the late 40s eary 50s!

Back in the day it was common for people to have all their teeth taken out and dentures for their 21st birthday.

Dentists used to also give out lollipops at the end of appointments as they wanted repeat patients.

Dentists were very very quick to take out teeth as well

@Lovesabadboy

That's interesting- similar age and had fillings, then my teeth seemed to improve in the 90s