Dentures & Partials
If you’re considering dentures or partials, the team at Glenpool Dentistry has the expertise and knowledge to help guide you through the decision-making process. We use modern dental technologies and the highest grade of products to offer a range of solutions, whatever your needs.
Dentures are removable false teeth that are either made from metal, nylon, or acrylic materials. They are custom-made to fit comfortably over a patient’s gums to replace any teeth that are missing. Aside from their aesthetic properties, this can also help to reduce any potential issues caused by gaps.
The two options are either complete dentures or partial dentures.
As you would expect, a full set of dentures can be used to replace all of your lower or upper teeth. On the other hand, partial dentures are ideal for replacing either single or multiple missing teeth. Dentures can play a vital role in helping to reduce or prevent issues with speech and eating. Complete dentures can also improve a person’s smile and thus impact their confidence at the same time.
Types of Dentures
If you’ve started to look at the different options for dentures, you will understand there are many to choose from. Below, we discuss three of the most popular choices.
Conventional Dentures
Conventional dentures are a complete set of dentures that can only be placed when all of the teeth have been removed. There is a multitude of benefits to conventional dentures, particularly in the case where a patient has lost all or most of their existing teeth. If this is the case, it’s likely that simple, everyday activities, such as chewing food, will have become problematic. It can lead to people avoiding foods they would have otherwise enjoyed.
Conventional dentures solve this issue, and they can help to replace some of the functions you had prior to losing your teeth. Aside from this, conventional dentures can also enhance and improve your oral health as well as your digestion, as foods can be chewed more effectively, which helps with pre-digestion and enables better absorption of nutrients from your food.
Immediate Dentures
An immediate denture can be either a complete or partial denture that is inserted the same day, immediately after any natural teeth have been removed. There is a multitude of benefits that support the use of immediate dentures. For many patients, knowing they will not need to face going out in public without teeth is a major advantage.
The duplication of the color, shape, and arrangement of the teeth is also easier while there are some natural teeth still remaining. When immediate dentures are placed directly after dental extraction, it can also help to reduce bleeding while protecting the tissues.
Practically speaking, immediate dentures can help patients establish speech patterns more effectively, as there is no period of having to speak with a denture in place. It also means that any potential facial distortions that would naturally occur when teeth are removed are also minimized.
While they offer a range of benefits, immediate dentures are not suitable for all patients. In some cases, due to general health conditions or specialized oral problems, they might not be a suitable course of treatment to pursue.
Overdentures
Overdentures are a type of removable
prosthesis that is designed to either fit over existing roots or dental implants that
have specialized attachments on top. These attachments allow the denture to be
anchored for a more secure fit. This type of denture can provide a higher level of
function than traditional tissue supported dentures.
The primary difference between overdentures and dentures is that a regular denture is a removable option that is secured with the suction between the denture and bone ridges. In contrast, overdentures are a stable and secure option for replacing teeth due to the fact they are secured on top of dental implants.
If you lose your teeth, the aesthetics of your smile could be impacted, along with the functionality of your teeth. If you eat with missing teeth, it can also put an increasing amount of strain onto any teeth that are still present. As Dr. Roulston will discuss with you, there are many options for replacing missing teeth, and any option that involves having an implant will typically provide you with one of the most secure and stable solutions. There are many choices where dentures are concerned, and not all of these options are open to everyone.
If you are considering your options, it’s always advisable to discuss this with Dr. Roulston. They can offer you tailored guidance and present you with a range of prices and timeframes for the choices you have available to you at any given point in time.