Signs and symptoms of toothlessness - Support the lips and cheeks, providing for a fuller, more aesthetically pleasing appearance - Maintain an individual's vertical dimension of occlusion - Allow for the proper pronunciation of various sounds, along with the tongue and lips - Preserve and maintain the height of the alveolar ridge - Cut, grind, and otherwise chew food

Facial support and aesthetics - The absence of teeth causes the cheeks to exhibit a sunken-in appearance and wrinkle lines to form at the commissures - The anterior teeth support the lips and provide certain aesthetic features, such as an acute nasiolabial angle - Loss of muscle tone and skin elasticity due to old age exacerbates the sunken-in appearance - The tongue tends to broaden out in the absence of teeth, making it difficult to fabricate dentures - Prosthetic teeth help restore the natural appearance of the mouth and support the lips

Vertical dimension of occlusion - The loss of teeth leads to a decrease in the vertical dimension of occlusion - Without teeth, the mouth tends to overclose, causing a sunken-in appearance of the cheeks - Overclosure may result in altered tone and elasticity of the mandible and TMJ - The excessive cheek than needed contributes to the sunken-in appearance - Treating the overclosure is essential to maintain the proper vertical dimension of occlusion

Pronunciation - Teeth play a major role in speech, allowing proper pronunciation of certain sounds - Consonant sounds like 't,' 'd,' 's,' 'z,' 'f,' and 'v' require tooth-to-tooth contact - Sounds like 't,' 'd,' 's,' 'z,' 'f,' and 'v' require tongue-to-tooth contact - Fricatives like 'f' and 'v' are achieved through lip-to-tooth contact - Edentulous individuals find it difficult to enunciate these sounds properly

Preservation of alveolar ridge height - Alveolar ridges are columns of bone that surround and anchor the teeth - When teeth are absent, the alveolar bone slowly resorbs - Resorption occurs in the vertical, anterioposterior, and faciolingual dimensions - Pressure on the bone exacerbates resorption, affecting ridge width - Retaining tooth roots or using implants can help decrease bone loss and maintain ridge shape