Or your grandparents. We hear it in the chair all the time, usually as a sentence that ends the same way: “My mother had false teeth. I don’t want those.”
It’s a fair worry. If tooth loss ran in your family, it’s natural to wonder whether it’s waiting for you too. Here’s why it runs in families, and why it doesn’t have to run in yours.
The short answer: tooth loss runs in families, but mostly not through genes. Many of our patients whose parents wore dentures will keep their own teeth for life. Teeth are lost three ways: gum disease, decay, or wearing them out. How those three are handled, starting early, matters far more than whose kid you are.
Running in families isn’t the same as inherited
Families share more than genes. They share hygiene habits, an environment and a diet, and all three play a role. Often, parents who ended up with dentures didn’t pass good habits on to their kids. Sometimes they did, and those kids tend to do well.
The research lines up with that. A long-running study in Dunedin, New Zealand, has followed the same group of people since they were born. Those whose parents had lost teeth were about 40% more likely to have lost a tooth themselves by age 32, even after accounting for how often they went to the dentist, their income and how much plaque they had. Parents with gum disease had kids more likely to show gum damage by 32 as well. The researchers’ conclusion was that family history stands in for both shared genes and a shared environment, not genes alone.
Shearer DM, Thomson WM, Caspi A, Moffitt TE, Broadbent JM, Poulton R. Family history and oral health: findings from the Dunedin Study. Community Dent Oral Epidemiol. 2012;40(2):105-115. Shearer DM, et al. Inter-generational continuity in periodontal health: findings from the Dunedin family history study. J Clin Periodontol. 2011;38(4):301-309.
Genes load the dice. They don’t guarantee snake eyes.
Genes do play a part. They can shape which bacteria live in your mouth and how your body reacts to them. A review of the studies on twins and families estimated that up to about a third of the difference in gum disease between people traces to genes, and more for the severe forms.
That still leaves most of it to everything else. And a genetic head start for the bacteria doesn’t mean there can’t be a fight to save the teeth. It means the fight starts earlier and needs to be steadier. And unlike at a craps table, you get a say in how this one comes out.
Nibali L, Bayliss-Chapman J, Almofareh SA, Zhou Y, Divaris K, Vieira AR. What Is the Heritability of Periodontitis? A Systematic Review. J Dent Res. 2019;98(6):632-641. Esberg A, Haworth S, Kuja-Halkola R, Magnusson PKE, Johansson I. Heritability of Oral Microbiota and Immune Responses to Oral Bacteria. Microorganisms. 2020;8(8):1126.
The three ways teeth are lost
- Gum disease. The gums and bone holding the teeth are lost until the teeth loosen. Bleeding gums are usually the first sign.
- Decay. Cavities, and the fillings, crowns and root canals that follow them, until there isn’t enough tooth left to fix.
- Wearing them out. Acid, grinding, or both, over decades, until the teeth are short and breaking. Why teeth get shorter.
Your parents most likely lost theirs to one or more of these. Knowing which one is worth more than any family tree, because each has its own fix.
Gum disease is the wild card, and it comes in bouts
Gum disease doesn’t usually move at a steady pace. It tends to flare, quiet down, and flare again. Researchers described this in the 1980s as damage happening in bursts rather than a slow, even slide.
That’s why the history matters so much. Two bouts over fifty years can take the teeth. One bout that’s treated and then managed can often be survived. One bout that’s treated and then neglected can be devastating.
The part that’s up to you is the “managed.” After gum disease is treated, two things keep a second bout from finishing what the first one started: the regular hygiene visits that follow, and what you do at home every day in between. How we treat gum disease.
Socransky SS, Haffajee AD, Goodson JM, Lindhe J. New concepts of destructive periodontal disease. J Clin Periodontol. 1984;11(1):21-32.
The dentistry you get early matters
The other big factor is how much dental work you have when you’re young, and how well it’s done. Poor work done early can be bad. Every time a filling is replaced, a little more tooth goes with it, and a tooth that starts that cycle at twenty has a lot of years to work through it. More on how teeth age, and why some age faster.
Good work done once, and looked after, is what lets a tooth skip most of that cycle.
What you can do, whatever your family history
- Tell us about it. Who in your family lost their teeth, roughly when, and whether you know why. It helps us know what to watch for.
- Treat gum disease, then keep it managed. Your hygiene visits and your home care after treatment matter as much as the treatment itself.
- Find the cause of any wear, so it can be slowed instead of repaired over and over.
- Get early work done well, so it doesn’t have to be redone.
- Clean the gum line every day, including between the teeth. That daily home care is the part no visit can do for you. Short videos on how to brush, floss and clean around crowns and implants.
If you’re already worried that it’s started, it isn’t too late. Is it too late to fix my teeth?
Where to start
A comprehensive exam shows which of the three, if any, is at work in your mouth, and how fast. Call 702-734-0776 or tell us what’s going on.
General education, and not a substitute for an exam.