At Classic Dental Smiles, we want all our patients to have healthy, strong, and beautiful smiles. But when our patients experience tooth decay and gum disease, tooth loss can take away their reason to smile. Fortunately dentures and partial dentures can replace natural teeth, to restore oral function and appearance.
If you would like to learn more about dentures, call our Rancho Bernardo dental office today at 858-485-6781 for a consultation with Dr. Brian Chan and our dental team.
No one enjoys losing teeth; it changes the way you look, permanently altering your smile. But that’s not the only adverse effect of tooth loss. Changes to the way a bite feels and functions, the development of headaches, and advancing bone loss are just a few problems that can occur when teeth are lost. Furthermore, empty tooth sockets create space for neighboring teeth to shift into the void, causing further complications.
Dentures can restore missing teeth, provide support to adjacent teeth, and add confidence to your smile. The ability to chew is restored and bone loss can be avoided with dentures. They can be worn on the top arch, bottom arch, or both, and can be removable or permanently fixed in the mouth (by way of dental implants). If you’ve lost teeth, dentures are a cost-effective solution to replace your missing teeth’s healthy appearance and function, all with one appliance.
Complete and Partial Dentures
Simply put, complete dentures replace an entire arch of teeth, while partial dentures replace individual teeth missing from different areas. Both are made with high strength acrylic, or acrylic reinforced with metal to add strength. The acrylic is generally colored to imitate gum tissue and prosthetic teeth made of porcelain to give a natural look to your smile.
Both partial and complete dentures are improved by the addition of stabilizing dental implants. With implants, partials and complete dentures can be removable or fixed, and jaw bone degeneration is halted.
How do Dentures Feel?
Complete and partial dentures will feel unusual to a first-time wearer. Most patients take some time to adjust, and each case is different. Generally, we have found that new denture wearers require a few days to a full month to adjust to the feeling and the process of using their new replacement teeth. However, once the adjustment period is over, most patients love their dentures so much that they wear them every day.
No matter how well a denture is created and fitted, patients often have some initial difficulty learning how to stabilize the lower denture, as it fits into the mouth differently than a top arch appliance. This is why many opt for the dental-implant-supported dentures on the bottom arch; implants can anchor the denture in place and make chewing and speaking easier.
Next Steps
If you are interested in learning more about dentures, we recommend coming in for a consultation with Dr. Brian Chan to review your oral health, concerns, and treatment options.
Ultimately our goal is that no one notice that you are wearing a denture. Just like all the restorations we complete at Classic Dental Smiles, we seek to mimic what nature has given you in form, appearance, and function.
If you would like to learn more about dentures, call our Rancho Bernardo dental office today at 858-485-6781 for a consultation with Dr. Brian Chan and our dental team.
