If you’ve lost all of your natural teeth, whether from periodontal disease, tooth decay or injury, complete dentures can replace your missing teeth and give you back your smile.
A complete dentures are removable prosthetics that are a full set of “false” teeth. Sometimes they are called plates. Complete dentures replace a full set of missing teeth in the upper and or lower jaws. They are custom made and are made of an acrylic resin.
Dentures provide the ability to chew your food, which is a difficult task if you are missing a full set of teeth. However, often you may be limited to chewing more of a softer textured diet. It can be very challenging to bite into foods like corn on the cob, nuts, steak or apples. Dentures can improve speech, give you back your smile and enhance your appearance. Often as the face ages the fullness of the skin is lost. Dentures can add fullness back to the face giving a more youthful and fuller appearance.
New Dentures
New dentures may feel awkward for a few weeks until you become acclimated to them. If they feel loose, your dentist can adjust them or reline them to make them fit better. Often, patients may experience sore spots that may occur in various areas of the mouth at different times. However, once, patients adapt to the dentures, they learn, how to function with them. There are many options for natural looking denture teeth available today. There are numerous shapes, sizes and colors of teeth. The teeth on the dentures usually are set up where they are perfectly aligned. Some patients would rather have some slight mis-alignment of the denture teeth to have a more natural appearance.
Even if you wear full dentures, you must still take good care of your mouth. Brush your gums, tongue and palate every morning with a soft-bristled brush before you insert your dentures and again at night when you’ve removed your dentures. Brushing will stimulate circulation in your tissues and help remove plaque. Dentures should be evaluated once a year to ensure that the gums on which the dentures sit on are healthy and the bite is proper.
What if the dentures are loose? Consider dental implants.
Most patients complain the lower denture is significantly looser than the upper denture. This is because the upper jaw has a palate, which provides suction and a larger surface area on which the upper denture sits on. The tongue or the lower jaw muscles often dislodge the lower denture. If the lower complete denture is loose fitting, patients will consider dental implants. Dental implants are titanium posts that are inserted into the jaw bone and the complete denture will “snap” on top of the implants. The denture subsequently will no longer be loose. The dental implants provide great retention for complete denture. The picture below, shows two dental implants in the lower jaw bone and the lower denture can snap onto the top of the dental implants.
For more information please visit www.oralsurgicalarts.com. Dr Ronald Achong is an Oral Surgeon that provides dental implant services in the Orlando and Lake County Area. (352) 243-5599
