Dental Treatments

As an alternative to bridges and implants, dentures can be used to replace several missing teeth. It is possible to get either full, or partial dentures. Full dentures remain in place by form fitting to the gum ridges. Partial dentures often have additional ridges that fit around the natural teeth helping them stay in place.

It can take several visits to our dental specialist in order to be properly fit with a denture. Our dentist will take several impressions of the gums, and send these to our technicians. They uses these impressions to construct your new dentures. On the next appointment, you and our dentist will check the dentures to ensure that your bit is correct and that the dentures meet your approval.

Implant Consideration — One of the significant disadvantage of dentures is the resorption of the underlying bone beneath. The bone is normally maintained by the stresses of chewing. When the teeth have been removed, the bone is no longer subject to the same stress, and therefore begins atrophy. The use of dental implants instead of dentures maintains the same kind of stress on the underlying bone which prevents bone resorption.

Types of Dentures

Complete or Full Dentures replace all the teeth in the upper or lower jaw. A denture helps you to properly chew food, a difficult task when you are missing teeth. In addition, a denture may improve speech and prevent a sagging face by providing support for lips and cheeks.

Overdentures are dentures that use precision dental attachments to hold the dentures down. The overdenture attachment can be placed in tooth roots that have been saved, or placed into dental implants which have been properly placed to receive them.

Immediate Dentures are constructed before the teeth are removed so that you will not be without any teeth. Constructing immediate dentures involves taking impressions (making copies) of your mouth before the teeth are removed. When your remaining teeth are removed, the denture can be put into place immediately.

Partial Dentures are removable dental appliances that replaces multiple missing teeth. They can be attached to the teeth with clasps (clasp or conventional partial) or to the teeth which have crowns with precision attachments (hidden clasps). Both types have metal framework,plastic teeth, and artificial gum areas.

Advantages/Disadvantages of Dentures

ADVANTAGES:

• Dentures provide a pleasant, natural looking smile.
• They are extremely durable.
• If well maintained, they should last averagely from five to ten years.
• They can correct problems with speech to chewing, for many patients.

DISADVANTAGES:

• Dentures take a little while to get used to.
• In the first few days, you may encounter speech problems.
• You may suffer from mouth irritation or sores. These are usually caused by your new denture, poor dental hygiene, and not removing your dentures when needed.
• You may only chew at 15-23% efficiency compared to a person chewing with their natural teeth, because the chewing force will not go directly to your bone.
• In the case of a full upper denture, the upper palate is full covered and this will affect your sense of taste.

Repairing your Dentures

If your partial denture breaks, cracks or chips, or if a denture tooth becomes loose, contact our clinic immediately. Do not try to fix it yourself. Our dentist can usually repair a broken denture, often on the same day.

It is especially important to see our dentist if your partial denture breaks while you are eating. This sometimes indicates that there has been a change in the fit of the dentures because the underlying tissue has changed. When our dentist repairs your denture, he or she will also examine your mouth and check whether your partial denture needs adjustment.