Dentures

Dentures are replacements for your teeth. They are prosthetic replacements. They're typically made out of either plastic or ceramic. And oftentimes, they also include gum tissue, which is also made out of like an acrylic material or a plastic. Dentures can either be complete dentures where they replace a full arch of teeth or either upper or lower, or they can be partial dentures where they're just replacing certain teeth that you may be missing. Most of our partials that we make in our office have a metal framework which gives them a lot of rigidity and strength. Those partial dentures are very long-lasting. I know patients that have had their partial dentures for years. When we make a partial denture, we put a lot of planning behind that, and we work with a local dental lab here, so we make sure that your partial is going to fit customized to your teeth. Getting used to a denture is typically an adjustment. So many of our dentures nowadays, we use dental implants to help secure them in place. With dental implants, a denture can have much more retention than it will if it just sits on the gums. With gums, typically an upper denture can have some decent suction because the upper arch with no teeth is kind of like a suction cup. So the denture can kind of act like a suction cup and get a good amount of stability that way. But a lot of patients struggle with a lower denture, especially. With a lower denture, we can't have that suction cup type action because of the tongue. So the tongue is in the way, and the lower denture is mostly held in just by gravity. So if we place dental implants in the lower arch, that gives a whole lot of stability for a denture that it wouldn't have otherwise and patients are much happier if they get the dental implant.