Dentures - a good or a bad option?

Often, people are missing teeth due to periodontal disease, decay, trauma or genetic defects. Dentists will coordinate with a lab to create dentures, or false teeth, to replace the missing teeth. Dentures can replace a few missing teeth on the same arch (partial denture) or it can replace all the teeth in an arch (complete denture).There are many benefits to a properly fitted denture.

Some examples include:

• Improved ability for the patient to chew food.

• Improvement to collapsed facial features. When the missing teeth are replaced by a denture the cheeks and lips are better supported.

• Improved speech. Patients are better able to pronounce certain sounds.

• Improved mental well-being of the patient. Patients feel better about themselves when their esthetics and speech are improved.

• Easier oral hygiene compared with bridges or implants.

• Cost effective

Dentures today are created using acrylic resins and porcelain to give the patient a natural appearance. Acrylic resin is strong and wears well. Porcelain, which strongly resembles the appearance of natural tooth enamel, is used mainly on the upper teeth as they are more visible. However, because porcelain will wear and damage natural teeth, porcelain can only be used in dentures where they will not occlude with any natural teeth.