Dentures: Types, Alternatives, and After-Care

Dentures: Types, Alternatives, and After-Care

April 1, 2022

Nearly 30 percent of the population is scared of dental visits because of dental phobia. The fear people express inhibits them from receiving the dental care they need. People with poor dental hygiene who fear losing their teeth express anxiety at dental visits.

Tooth loss is a common problem among adults, with nearly 19 percent of adults over 65 losing all their teeth. Advances in medicine have ensured people live longer than earlier and are likely to have edentulous gaps in their mouths from missing teeth. Loss of teeth ensures people suffer from nutritional challenges because they cannot eat correctly, leading to problems with their overall health. Fortunately, dentures are available to ensure people can replace their natural teeth with dental prosthetics.

Familiar Reasons for Tooth Loss

Many people endure tooth loss because they have severely decayed teeth or periodontal disease. Gum disease destroys the supporting structures of the teeth allowing them to anchor to your jawbone. When your jawbone weakens, your teeth will likely become loose and develop infections requiring extraction. Many people have genetic conditions and develop gum disease. Unfortunately, this particular infection is entirely preventable by maintaining proper dental hygiene and visiting the dentist near you for routine exams and cleanings.

Denture Types

There are various types of dentures. They are:

Complete Dentures

Complete dentures are custom-created removable appliances to replace your upper or lower teeth. The appliance is created with a pink-colored acrylic base fitting over your gums with plastic teeth. If you need an upper denture, the bottom of the instrument covers your mouth’s roof. In stark contrast, lower dentures are horseshoe-shaped, helping make space for your tongue.

Sometimes dentures do not fit snugly to your gums as the dentist near Grandview-Woodland would prefer them to. In such cases, the dentist does a relining where the acrylic is relined into its base to enable a tighter fit. You can also consider using denture adhesives to provide a tight seal to keep the denture in place. Unfortunately, if the adhesive fails to stabilize your complete denture when biting into complex foods, the dentist recommends implant-supported dentures.

Immediate Dentures

Immediate dentures are also complete dentures created before your teeth are removed from your mouth. Immediate dentures help you transition from your teeth to your complete and final denture. You receive the appliance on the same day of tooth extraction to ensure you can move around without showing gaps between your teeth. Impressions are taken before extracting your teeth to create an immediate denture.

Immediate dentures are temporary appliances because your gums tend to shrink after tooth removal ensuring that the immediate prosthetic will not fit snugly as it did in the beginning. Therefore, approximately eight weeks after tooth removal, you must have a conventional denture fabricated.

Partial Dentures

A metal framework holds partial dentures that rest on your natural teeth. The partial denture anchors to your natural teeth, remaining comfortable and stable because your existing teeth stabilize them. Partial dentures are also removable similar to complete dentures.

Implant Dentures

If you want optimal quality dentures in Vancouver, you can opt for implant dentures similar to complete dentures. Implant dentures have attachments snapping onto titanium implants surgically embedded to replace the missing tooth. The metallic support base fuses with your jawbone in around three to six months, after which a replacement tooth is mounted on the metallic base.

Implant dentures do not require denture adhesives because your false teeth are held in place by dental implants. You merely need two implants in the lower jaw and two in the upper jaw embedded in strategic locations.

If you have adequate jawbone and are physically healthy, you can have implant dentures as a stable option that functions and appears like your natural teeth. However, you must prepare yourself for considerable expenditure because these prosthetics are the most expensive.

Alternatives for Dentures

If you don’t favor dentures, you have alternatives in dental implants and dental bridge Vancouver. Dental implants require surgery to embed the titanium post into your jawbone and a waiting time of three to six months for the implant to integrate with your bone. You can have a porcelain dental crown mounted on the implant after recovering from the procedure.

If you prefer dental bridges, you must have at least two natural teeth neighboring the missing tooth gap. You can have dental bridges in approximately three weeks after the dentist reshapes your natural teeth to accommodate dental crowns with a false tooth between them to function as your replacement tooth.

The alternatives suggested are more expensive than dentures and cost you considerably higher sums. Therefore you might prefer dentures to replace your natural teeth instead of other options.

Caring for Your Dentures

Caring for your dentures is not challenging so long as you follow the guidelines mentioned below.

  • Never let your dentures dry out by leaving them out of your mouth in the open. Instead, please place them in a denture cleanser or plain water when they are not in your mouth.
  • Brush your dentures every day using a soft-bristled denture toothbrush and regular soap without using toothpaste on them.
  • Remove your dentures from your mouth at night and place them in a denture-soaking solution or water. Do not consider using hot water because it can warp the dentures.
  • Brush your gums, palate, and tongue with a soft toothbrush every morning before you place your dentures back in your mouth.
  • If your dentures break, cause discomfort or feel loose, contact your dentist for help.

If you must replace your teeth with dentures, Phoenix Dental Implant and Investment Centre provides excellent dental prosthetics to serve your purpose. Please contact them for your replacement teeth.

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