Dentures
When people lose all their natural teeth, it’s usually due to dental disease. It’s also possible to lose one or several teeth from trauma to the mouth. You would receive full dentures via a set of replacement teeth for your upper and lower jaws if you have no remaining natural teeth or partial dentures to replace some missing teeth. While covering a gap in the smile is the most typical reason for obtaining dentures, they offer several other benefits as well. We outline some of them below.
Benefits of Replacing Missing Teeth with Dentures
Here are some of the benefits you can expect when you choose to work with your dentist at C&S Family Dental to obtain new dentures:
- Improved aesthetics and a more attractive smile
- Reduces the likelihood that you will develop temporomandibular joint disorder (TMJ)
- Prevents sagging of your face, although this benefit can disappear with long-term use
- Improves the clarity of your speech because you can articulate your words better
- Partial dentures help to prevent the remaining teeth from changing the alignment of your bite by shifting towards the open spot left by the missing tooth or teeth
- Increased strength of your bite and better ability to chew and digest food
Full or partial dentures can have some drawbacks as well. Your dentist will discuss several tooth replacement options with you and provide a recommendation for the most helpful type of restoration.
The Process of Receiving Dentures at C & S Family Dental
You will need to commit to several appointments with our dental practice as you obtain your new dentures. For the first appointment, your dentist will obtain several X-rays as well as impressions of your gums and any teeth you have remaining. This provides your dentist with valuable information to aid in treatment planning. However, she first needs to send it to our dental laboratory to enable the technicians to create new dentures according to your unique specifications. A member of our office staff will contact you to schedule a fitting when the laboratory returns your initial set of dentures.
If you require a complete set of upper dentures, the suctioning power present in the roof of your mouth helps to keep them in place. With the lower dentures, the muscles of your tongue, lips, and cheeks help to secure them. You will receive a removable device with replacement teeth attached if you need partial dentures.
Don’t feel discourage if you need several weeks to become accustomed to your new dentures. It’s important to stick with it and not remove the dentures if they feel slightly uncomfortable or awkward. The more you remove them, the more challenging it will be to adjust to wearing them full-time. Our staff will give you plenty of tips on how to adjust to wearing dentures and best practices to care for them.
Improving the Longevity of Your Dentures
To clean your dentures, purchase denture cleaning tablets and place one into a cup of water. After it disintegrates, place your dentures in the cup to soak them overnight. Don’t forget to brush and rinse your dentures regularly just as you would your natural teeth. Most initial sets of dentures last approximately five years before requiring replacement due to natural degradation and changes to your bones and gums that affect the fit. Please don’t hesitate to contact us with additional questions.