Premature Dental Aging and It's Effects On Your Facial Features!

The aging of dentition due to wear and grinding results in aging of the lower face, lips and corners of the lips.  To begin with, GRINDING OF TEETH is one of the biggest offenders!

Teeth become shorter and as the result the chin comes closer to the nose and gives a person an aged appearance.

Upper teeth to get shorter.  The length of upper teeth and position of upper teeth are the main component that give upper lip support.  When teeth become short the upper lip curls in and become smaller.

A reduced vertical dimension (chin closer to nose), thinner lips, as well as the corners of lips fold together, which result in an aged appearance.

Of course we know that a whiter smile is associated with a fresher, younger appearance, and that as a rule of thumb, younger people have lighter teeth than older people. The COLOR OF DENTITION makes a noticeable difference on one's appearance!

As we get older the thickness of enamel, which is the outer layer of our teeth, thins, and the color of the inner layer, dentin, shows through more.  This results in more yellowish, grayish color (depends on color of dentin).  Younger people have lighter teeth than older people in general.  

Another sign of aging dentition is an offender called, CROWDING...

Our teeth have a natural tendency to move to middle of our face.  Teeth have contact with each other.  In young people the contact of two adjacent teeth are on the upper portion (close to edge of teeth) of teeth,  as we get older we wear the edges of our teeth, we lose contact between two teeth, teeth move to middle of the face and new contacts form.  These changes result in crowding of teeth especially on the lower and upper anterior teeth, and thus revealing an aged looking smile.

Finally, last but not least guilty, the infamous BLACK TRIANGLEs...

The gum between two teeth is called papilla.  Gum disease causes bone loss between teeth and as the result the gum between teeth moves with the bone.  This results in blunting and loss of papilla which results in holes between teeth a.k.a black triangles . . . no thanks!