Many people assume that dentures are the stereotypical false teeth we often visualize as falling out or creating embarrassing moments in a kitchen when someone stumbles across them in a cleaning jar.  This is far from reality, because dental technology has evolved far beyond the crude generics of decades past.  Todays tooth replacement options are far more sophisticated and individualized to the personal needs of each patient, and there are several different types of dentures from which to choose.  One of the more interesting options you might want to consider is overdentures.  Overdentures are made to fit over existing teeth.  From the outside, they appear the same as traditional dentures.  However, they offer the advantage of retaining existing natural teeth and fitting over these teeth in a way that is both comfortable to your mouth and cosmetically appealing to people who see you smile.

In cosmetic dentistry, we always stress to our patients the absolute necessity of protecting against bone loss.  Bone loss is the worst possible side effect of missing teeth.  Without a tooth root or a titanium dental implant to grow around, the jaw bone will begin to recede little by little.  When people use dentures, they do restore the ability to chew and smile to a certain degree, but they do nothing to stop this problem of deterioration.  The disadvantage to this is traditional dentures often require extraction of natural teeth in order to fit along the gum line.  With overdentures that slide over remaining teeth, the bone loss that would have resulted from pulling these teeth is minimized, and the patient is much more likely to be a healthy candidate for dental implants when funding becomes available down the line. 

In order to make sure that overdentures offer you the best possible functionality, cosmetic value, and ultimate bone preservation, cosmetic dentists take great care to prepare your existing teeth for fitting.  In most cases, we will remove a portion of your natural teeth above the gum line in order to provide a better surface onto which to fit the overdentures.  We will also perform a root canal on each tooth to circumvent the possibility of an infection that would result in the loss of any of these teeth.  We will then cap these teeth to provide the best possible surface area for fitting.

If any natural teeth simply cannot be saved, we will reluctantly extract these in the best interests of preserving the remaining teeth.  However, we try very hard not to resort to this option for anything other than a truly last resort. 

To create the actual overdentures themselves, we next take impressions of your entire mouth.  These molds enable us to create precise working models of the natural teeth you have lost.  These models then become the templates for your new tooth replacements.  We then match the final product to the color of your existing teeth and fit them over the anchor teeth. 

This is truly one of the best alternatives to permanent dental implants, but it is still not a true and lasting substitute.  There will be initial adjustment problems to the new teeth and you may have an increase in salivation and a possible gag reflex.  While almost all patients eventually overcome these initial discomforts, there is still a need to eventually do something about the places along the jawbone that lack tooth roots or tooth root replacements.  Overdentures, as unobtrusive and effective as they ultimately become, should still be considered as a transition to dental implants and never as a permanent solution to missing teeth.