Last week I had a really nice lady come into the office with some teeth that were at the end-of-the-road.

DENTURES: How denture services in Bryn Mawr can help improve your oral health.

She told me that she wanted dentures.

I gave her the insights of life with dentures.

Since the full upper denture covers the roof of your mouth you not only lose taste sensation, but you also lose texture sensation. These GREATLY reduce the joy of eating.

You can frequently lose the ability to eat anything. I’m looking at you fried chicken and corn on the cob. Quite often crisp veggies like carrots can be a real challenge. Patients need to learn to chew with food on both sides to keep the dentures from popping up on the other side. Tricks like these can be difficult for people to learn, especially old dogs.

There is the comfort aspect of having dentures. Even good fitting dentures can allow food to get under them and painfully pinch the gums when you bite down on them.

There can also be a heavy psychic tax on the denture wearer, knowing that they don’t have their own teeth, they have these foreign, plastic plates in their mouths. They can live with a real sense of loss and have a loss of self-confidence.

If we look at the upside of dentures, they can be the least expensive route to health, comfort and eating for people that have been suffering with loose, infected, painful and ugly teeth for years.

If a patient has the luxury of having the dentures made before periodontal disease causes the bone to breakdown, we CAN make dentures that fit well minimizing the problems listing above.

For many that is not the case and for them having implant supported dentures in bryn mawr are a wonderful option.

OVERDENTURES, or Implant-supported dentures

I’d like to talk about the great options available to the people looking for options after their teeth have failed.

We can make dentures that snap onto as little as 2 implants on the bottom and four on the top.

Little nylon bushing allows for smaller, less obtrusive dentures to snap onto implants and keep them stable. This allows for more taste and texture sensation, more chewing ability and self-confidence.

One of the amazing benefits I love about these removable over-dentures is that one can remove them a few times a day if they wish and clean them and their mouths, or simple rinse them out. This is a fantastic benefit.

The fee for upper and lower overdentures including the implants can get into the tens of thousands, as it requires both involved surgical and restorative components.

As a dentist I have found that most people’s perception is that teeth restored with dental implants are rigidly fixed, strong, don’t come out and just require regular maintenance.

This is mostly true. There are special processes that need to be followed to keep them clean. We usually recommend Waterpicks or other devices for cleaning the gaps between the overdentures and the gums and around the implants. There can be some very difficult to reach areas that need special help to keep them clean.

To make sure that these areas are clean and that there is no breakdown of the tissues under the dentures and around the implants, we need to take them off and clean them and the tissues periodically, often yearly.

One of the coolest aspects of this treatment modality is in the name. We sometimes refer to this procedure, “Teeth In A Day”.

What we mean by this is that we do sophisticated measurements and readings for both the surgical and restorative processes. We send all of the information out to our lab and they make the overdenture.

The day of the surgery we remove the remaining teeth, place the implants and attach the dentures that evening or the next day. This is to allow the lab the opportunity to custom fit the components that will precisely screw on to the implants.

Essentially, the patient is never without teeth during this process.

After a few months we either refit  the overdenture or make a new one that has not been patched up to adapt for the changing contours of the gums after the surgeries.

I don’t want to underscore the value and benefits of having dentures verses having loose, infected teeth.

I don’t mean to be dismissive of financial realities and limitations that we all live under.

It is often a very unique and personal conversation to find out which option feels right for each patient.

If you are considering one of these options for yourself or are helping your parents or a loved one through this process and would like more information or start the convo, we’re here for you.

 Dr. David Dillon, Dillon Family Dentistry

Just call Joanne at 610-525-5497