What is the end-stage edentulous reckoning that most dentists never see? The day arrives, for patients living long enough in removable prosthetics, when no further denture can be fabricated. Bone resorption continues year after year under a denture worn against the ridges. The patient's remaining mandibular bone reduces to a pencil-thin structure. The maxillary ridges flatten to nonexistent. Their physiological ability to adapt to a removable prosthetic declines with age alongside the bone loss. At a certain point, even the most skilled prosthodontist cannot fabricate a denture the patient can wear and function with. The clinical situation has crossed into territory [...]