Can Missing Teeth Make You Look Older? What the Evidence Shows

What has been measured: people with no teeth

The facial studies in our sources looked at people who had lost all their teeth. A small 2026 study scanned the faces of people with no teeth, first without dentures and then with new complete dentures in place. With the dentures in place, the lips and the area around the mouth had more support¹. It was a small before-and-after study with no separate comparison group, and the faces were scanned within a few days of the dentures being fitted, so it cannot say whether the change lasts. It measured the shape of the lips and face, not whether people looked younger.

In people without teeth, the gums and jawbone also keep changing shape over the years². This is one reason why dentures can become loose and need adjusting, relining or replacing.

None of this was measured in people missing one or a few teeth. That is the gap between the evidence and the claim that a missing tooth ages your face.

What happens to the bone after a tooth is lost

After a tooth is taken out, the bone that held it becomes narrower and lower. Reviews of healing sockets found that most of this change happens in the first months of healing³, and that the amount varies with the type of tooth⁴.

This is a local change in the jaw. It matters mainly if a tooth is to be replaced later, because an implant needs enough bone around it. It has not been shown to change the shape of the face when one or a few teeth are missing. Where too little bone is left for an implant, grafting may be discussed. See bone grafting.

What a gap can change

• Your smile. A gap at the front shows when you smile and talk. In the survey studies that looked at where the gap was, gaps at the front tended to matter more to people⁵ than gaps at the back, and a review found that appearance and satisfaction suffer most when front teeth are lost⁶.
• Everyday life and confidence. Across many countries, people with fewer teeth report more problems with eating, comfort and confidence⁷. These surveys show an association; they do not show that tooth loss causes these problems in a given person, and how much it matters varies a lot.
• Speech. Missing teeth can make speaking harder for some people, and dentures are one way to help with that². We found little research on how often this happens, and in surveys people usually rate speech as less of a concern than chewing and appearance⁶.
• Chewing. It depends on how many teeth are left and where they are. A review found that chewing depends mainly on the number and position of the remaining teeth⁶, and trials suggest that people who have lost only back molars often manage well⁸.

What the evidence does not show

Articles on this topic often go further than the research. In the sources we reviewed:

• No study measured the face after the loss of one or a few teeth, and none measured how old people looked.
• They do not show that missing teeth cause problems of the jaw joint and chewing muscles (temporomandibular disorders, often called TMJ problems). A review found no relationship between bite (occlusal) factors and symptoms of these disorders⁶. That does not mean replacing teeth prevents or treats them.
• We found no evidence on missing teeth and neck posture.
• No source tested whether implants preserve the face or prevent bone loss. An implant replaces a tooth; it is not an anti-ageing treatment.
• No source links a particular delay in replacing a tooth to a worse result, although the bone does change after an extraction and neighbouring teeth can tip or drift into a gap⁹ over time. When a back tooth is lost, the tooth that used to bite against it can move towards the gap¹⁰; in the studies available this ranged from nothing to a few millimetres.

If a gap bothers you

What counts is what the gap changes for you: how you look, how you chew, how you speak or how comfortable you feel. The options are an implant with a crown, a bridge fixed to the neighbouring teeth, a removable denture, or leaving the gap and checking it at regular visits. For some back-tooth gaps, leaving the space is reasonable: a review of trials on people who had lost back molars but kept their front teeth and premolars (a "shortened dental arch") found encouraging results for chewing and satisfaction⁸. The trials were few and some had methodological weaknesses, so your dentist should check whether your remaining teeth still meet well enough for chewing.

If an implant is chosen, pooled studies found about 97 in 100 single implants still in place after five years and about 95 after ten¹¹. The crown on top is replaced more often: about 89 in 100 were still in use after ten years. These are averages from many studies, not a prediction for you or the results of one clinic.

Staying in place is not the same as being trouble-free. An implant needs surgery and daily cleaning around it, and inflammation with loss of the bone around the implant (peri-implantitis¹²) can develop years later; if it progresses, the implant can be lost. Implants fail more often in people who smoke¹³ or have a history of gum disease¹⁴, so your health and your gums are part of deciding whether an implant suits you.

The sources we used do not show one best option for every gap, so we do not rank implants, bridges and dentures here. See dental implants for how implant treatment runs.

When to see a dentist

Book a visit if a gap bothers you, if a tooth next to a gap seems to have moved, if a denture slips, hurts or no longer fits, or if your gums bleed. A long-standing gap is worth mentioning at your next check-up so the teeth around it can be monitored.

Ask for an urgent appointment if a tooth becomes loose or your gums are very sore and swollen¹⁵. Toothache with swelling of the gum, face or jaw, or with a fever, also needs an urgent appointment: a dental abscess needs urgent treatment by a dentist¹⁶ and will not go away on its own.

Emergencies. Difficulty breathing or swallowing, rapidly spreading swelling of the face or neck, high fever or swelling around the eye are serious signs. Go to the nearest emergency department or call 112.

Frequently asked questions