Dentures
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When most or all your natural teeth have been lost, dentures
provide many benefits:
- Restore your self-esteem
- Regain your eating ability
- Aid speaking ability
- Give support back to the lips and cheeks
(giving you a natural and younger appearance).
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A Complete Denture is placed in the patient's mouth after all
the teeth have been extracted and the gum tissue has healed. Healing
takes anywhere from a few weeks to a few months, depending upon the
patient.
An interim denture is frequently used to transition either to complete
dentures from natural teeth or from a worn set of dentures to a new
ideal set.
| An Overdenture usually requires that at
least 2 roots be kept. These roots may be used to hold the denture
in place by placing inserts in the roots and in the denture.
The denture then attaches to the roots. These roots also give
support to the denture and help retain the ridge the denture
sits on. |
Occationally a bar will be used for splinting and retention of
an overdenture. An Implant-Retained Denture is similar to
an Overdenture, but uses implants as
anchors.
| A Partial Denture or "removable bridge"
replaces one or more missing teeth, but there must be teeth
remaining for the partial to attach to. Unlike a Fixed
Bridge, a partial is removable. A partial will prevent other
teeth from shifting, preserving your remaining teeth. |
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Flexible partial dentures can often oprovide a compfortable alternative
to a conventional, metal-based partial.
Considering Denture Therapy?
Dentures are not real teeth. They are acrylic substitutes for some
or all of a person's teeth, but they do not function at all the
same as natural teeth. In fact, only about 15% of the forces applied
during chewing to natural teeth can be applied to dentures before
they completely fail to function. Instead of bone and ligaments,
dentures are held in place by suction (upper dentures) and by tongue
control (lower dentures). Lower dentures are very difficult to wear,
and most people find them very uncomfortable. Unfortunately, because
dentures are "loose" by definition, experienced denture
wearers adapt to subtle changes in the bone that occur over time
with denture wear.
As soon as the natural teeth are removed, the appearance of the
face changes rapidly. Dentures cannot exactly duplicate natural
teeth and bone. Since the jaw bones are strengthened by the forces
applied to natural teeth during chewing, they begin to shrink when
they are extracted. Most bone loss occurs during the first year
following extraction of the natural teeth, but it continues throughout
life. Bone shrinkage is worsened by poor denture fit and function,
which occurs as dentures age.
Dentures do not last forever. The average denture needs to be replaced
every 7 years, depending on the individual. Because the human body
has an amazing ability to adapt to minor progressive changes over
time, most denture wearers should have their dentures replaced long
before they actually seek care from a dentist. Besides obvious signs
of wear on the dentures such as brittle, stained acrylic and broken
or worn teeth, the jaw bones and tissues are injured by poorly fitting
dentures.
As a general rule, dentures should be relined about every two years.
This means that new plastic must be added to the inside of your
existing denture in order to fill spaces between the denture and
the gums left vacant by the receding bone. Relines do not restore
the dimensions of the face, but they do keep the denture tight and
stable.
When denture therapy is the only option, it is usually best to first
have an interim denture inserted at the time of extraction surgery.
This is usually a lower-cost denture that is simply used as a mold
for healing and to serve as a "rough draft" for a definitive
denture. Interim dentures usually are relined with soft liners that
"condition" the tissues during the first year of healing.
When the jaw bones are adequately healed and no longer undergoing
rapid changes, new, definitive dentures should be made to last for
the next several years.
Dr. Huff
will evaluate your condition and needs to help you determine the
option that is best for you.
Click here
for more information about dentures.
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