Overdentures
Many assume dentures are stereotypical false teeth. They picture things like teeth in a glass on the counter in a kitchen, causing embarrassment to friends and fright to children. This is far from the truth. Dental technology has progressed far beyond generic methods of past decades. Today, tooth replacements are much more sophisticated and personalized to the individual. In fact, there are several different types of dentures you can choose from. Among the more interesting options to consider are overdentures, which are made to fit over existing teeth. They look the same as traditional dentures, but they offer the advantage of letting you keep existing teeth.
We recommend to our patients that they protect themselves against bone loss as much as possible. Without dental implants to grow around, the jaw bone will begin to recede a little at a time. With dentures, people are able to chew and smile to some degree, but dentures do nothing to stop bone deterioration. Because traditional dentures often involve extracting existing teeth in order to help them fit, bone loss normally results after a few years. However, when you use overdentures that slide over your remaining natural teeth, bone loss is minimal in comparison (depending on the number of natural teeth preserved, of course.)
To make certain that your overdentures bring you maximum benefit, we at the Cosmetic Dentistry Center will take great care to prepare your remaining, natural teeth for fitting. In most instances, we remove a piece of each natural tooth above the gum line so it will have a better surface to which to fit overdentures. We also do a root canal on every tooth to prevent the possibility of an infection that would result in tooth loss. We cap these teeth to ensure the best possible fit.
When natural teeth simply cannot be saved, we will reluctantly pull them in the best interests of preserving remaining teeth. However, we so try very hard not to use this option as anything other than a last resort.
We next take impressions of your entire mouth to create the actual overdentures. These impressions allow us to create precise working models of the natural teeth you have lost. We then match the overdentures to the color of your natural teeth and place them in your mouth.
This is one of the best alternatives to permanent dental implants, but ultimately implants offer the very best possible form of tooth replacement. As unobtrusive and effective as overdentures are, they should still be considered as a transition to dental implants and never as a permanent solution to missing teeth.
We recommend to our patients that they protect themselves against bone loss as much as possible. Without dental implants to grow around, the jaw bone will begin to recede a little at a time. With dentures, people are able to chew and smile to some degree, but dentures do nothing to stop bone deterioration. Because traditional dentures often involve extracting existing teeth in order to help them fit, bone loss normally results after a few years. However, when you use overdentures that slide over your remaining natural teeth, bone loss is minimal in comparison (depending on the number of natural teeth preserved, of course.)
To make certain that your overdentures bring you maximum benefit, we at the Cosmetic Dentistry Center will take great care to prepare your remaining, natural teeth for fitting. In most instances, we remove a piece of each natural tooth above the gum line so it will have a better surface to which to fit overdentures. We also do a root canal on every tooth to prevent the possibility of an infection that would result in tooth loss. We cap these teeth to ensure the best possible fit.
When natural teeth simply cannot be saved, we will reluctantly pull them in the best interests of preserving remaining teeth. However, we so try very hard not to use this option as anything other than a last resort.
We next take impressions of your entire mouth to create the actual overdentures. These impressions allow us to create precise working models of the natural teeth you have lost. We then match the overdentures to the color of your natural teeth and place them in your mouth.
This is one of the best alternatives to permanent dental implants, but ultimately implants offer the very best possible form of tooth replacement. As unobtrusive and effective as overdentures are, they should still be considered as a transition to dental implants and never as a permanent solution to missing teeth.
posted by Dental Expert at
8:25 PM
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