As most people already know, dentures are made when all of the teeth are missing. They are made of a special type of durable and life-like plastic that is colored to replicate the teeth and gums. When a patient needs all teeth extracted for complete dentures, we are able to make the dentures ahead of time so that immediately after the teeth are extracted the patient can leave the office with the dentures in place and is never in public without teeth. We usually recommend that our patients have sedation during the extraction procedure for their comfort so that they wake up and the procedure is done and the dentures are in place. The denture and the extraction procedure are all conveniently coordinated here in our Victoria, TX dentist office.
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Dentures are primarily held in place by the degree of suction that the individual patient’s mouth allows. Generally speaking, the larger the edentulous bony ridge is where the teeth used to be, the greater the suction and stability of the dentures. In some cases though, there may be a less than ideal shape of the jaws which does not allow adequate suction to hold the denture in place. In these instances, we recommend dental implants that snap into the denture in order to hold the denture in place. This can be done in many cases with an already existing denture with minimal modifications to the denture.
Over time, even the best denture will become loose and eventually have wear on the teeth. The bone and gums under the dentures will have a tendency to change and shrink over time. This will cause dentures to become loose and can cause sores or ulcers to develop under the denture. This is easy to correct with a denture reline.
If the denture teeth are not too worn and the denture is loose then the remedy is to do a reline of the denture. The denture reline is a new liner that is bonded inside of the existing denture. It is an exact mold of the shape of the patient’s jaw and gum tissue, which can greatly improve the fit of an older denture.
If denture teeth are broken or worn, they can be repaired or replaced in many cases. We would just need to evaluate the denture to see if that is the best option. We can then repair the denture as needed.
Another problem that many patients have now with dentures is dry mouth. Dry mouth is often a byproduct of prescription medications and sometimes radiation treatments. When the mouth is dry, it can make the gum tissue under the denture irritated and more prone to ulcers. Asking the physician if there is an alternative medicine that does not cause dry mouth is the easiest fix. There are certain mouth rinses and even in rare cases prescription medications that can also help with denture patients with dry mouth.
There is also another option that offers denture patients even more natural function. This is a complete implant supported denture or bridge that replaces all the missing teeth. This can be either fixed in place and does not come out, or can be made to be removable as well when the patient wants it to come out for cleaning. More implants are used so that the plastic edges and plastic in the roof of the mouth of traditional dentures are not needed for suction, further increasing comfort and natural function.
When several teeth are still present, a partial denture is one option to replace the missing teeth. The partial denture is made basically the same way as the complete denture, except that some of the teeth that the partial denture will touch have very small notches prepared to hold the partial as firmly in place as possible. Bridges or implants would be other possible alternatives to a partial denture.
Our office is conveniently located off East Mockingbird Lane, between John Stockbauer Rd., and Sam Houston Dr.
110 Professional Park Dr.
Victoria, TX 77904
| Mon - Thu |
| 8:00AM - 5:00PM |
