Exploring Dentures: Your Comprehensive Guide

Having dentures is not really a subject many are likely to talk about.

So, how’s one to know anything about the experience?

If you know that you are coming to the end of the road with your teeth, dentures might be the option for you.

Quite often we can take all of the measurements and records before taking the last teeth out.

In this case we can do immediate dentures. An immediate denture is fabricated by the lab using the position of the remaining teeth to ascertain the proper spatial positioning of the denture teeth to coincide with where the natural teeth were. We can even have them made to mimic the shape, size alignment of the natural teeth so as to maintain the same appearance.

Quite often the natural teeth might not be exactly the look the patient would like to have going forward and we can give them the smile they always wanted. They can choose the shape, alignment and shade of the teeth as white as they’d like.

When the day comes the general dentist or family dentist can take out the remaining natural teeth and place dentures. We will typically line the denture with a soft rubbery material to form fit the prosthesis to the contours of the gums after the surgery. The softness of the material adds some padding and support.                                  

 Patients are advised not to try to chew for the first week or so and might not like the feeling of chewing on the pieces since they rest on the surgical sites. As the areas heal and the rubbery material continues to harden the patient can gradually try more and more types of food requiring more chewing.

We will often continue to adjust the dentures as they settle in as the gums heal and shrink.

After a few months all of the healing and remodeling of the gums should have settled into a more stable form. At this time the dentist will determine whether or not the immediate dentures can transition into permanent dentures or if new dentures must be fabricated for optimal comfort and function.

The process can be a little more challenging for people who have already lost their teeth. Many landmarks and dimensions are lost and the dentist and the lab must determine the exact spatial relations for the top and bottom teeth and how they intimately relate to each other.

There is one last topic in this conversation.

Dental implants.

To be honest we have had more patients choose the option of having dental implants placed and then having dentures attached to them than just having regular dentures.

Many feel the added comfort, support, functionality and confidence is well worth the added time, work and cost. 

Please see Dillon Family Dentistry’s other blogs and videos telling more about implant supported dentures and overdentures. We are the best Dental Dentures in Bryn Mawr.