Denture Information
Need For Dentures
Currently Dental appliances are known as many informal names such as dentures, dental plate, false teeth, choppers, chewers, sharkies, fangs and falsies apart from many other terms that I’ve heard and come across over the many years of being in the industry and private practice.
Everybody wants to have a bright, perfect and natural looking smile, helping to obtain the confidence necessary to live in harmony with society. Firmly fixed teeth that are securely fitted and integrated in the oral ridges, allow the ease of eating, talking, sneezing, coughing, yelling, singing and even the enjoyment of pleasurable laughter. Although they are a very expensive process, they are to date, an impressive option to consider.
Dentures (or dental prosthetic appliances) are, in every case, custom-made by the collaboration of a dental prosthetist and a dental technician, in which, they try to construct a dental appliance to closely resemble the natural teeth and facial aesthetics of a patient’s natural appearance. Ultimately, there should be no noticeable variance to the facial appearance aside from an improved smile. Comfortable dentures will in most cases allow you the everyday pleasure of eating in comfort again and removing the imposition of embarrassment felt by patients, created from a partial or total missing dentition.
Dentures are made to specifically take the shape of the underlying tissues and also, replace and mimic the required shape of an individual’s mouth.
The reasons for why dentures are a necessity, range quite numerously from maxillary and mandibular trauma, caries and tooth trauma, periodontal fibre degeneration, gum and gingival problems, including Systemic disease, ultimately resulting congenital toothloss. There are many ways to restore missing tooth/teeth by Complete Dental appliance, Removable Partial Denture, Fixed Partial dental appliance (Crown & Bridges), Orthodontic correction or by Dental Implants.
There are always many reasons why teeth may have been extracted. These reasons are due to poor oral health conditions, stemming from poor personal oral hygiene or simply by some sort of forceful damage to the physiology of the jaw and general morphology of the dentition. Toothloss is also caused due to other factors, such as poor health hygiene, lack of calcium and other necessary nutrients.
Dental Appliances are usually the result of many factors related to the unfortunate change of oral circumstances, such as, forceful damage to the physiology of the teeth and supporting, surrounding soft and hard tissues of the oral ridges. Pathological and chemico-depletive changes to the oral physiological arena which, can cause many problematic factors to the mouth. However, these are the issues and factors that dental prosthetists and denture practitioners deal with every day of their working life, hoping to succeed and overcome as many patient problems that they encounter continually.
The practitioner works on patients that require replacement of a synthetic dental appliance to help in aesthetics and function.
In general, a dental appliance rests directly on the oral ridge of the jawbone and is to some extent, after much practice and experience, held in place by a combination of suction, the facial muscles, the tongue and healthy saliva.
All conventional dental appliances are all removable dental appliances. There are many different denture formats such as:
- Complete dental appliances; replacing all the dentition on that arch.
- Full/Complete dental appliances have to contend with no retention, due to the physiologically inept ridges of the totally removed dentition and deficient oral condition.
- Partial dental appliances replace only the missing dentition. These dental appliances are re-tented somewhat more than their full/complete dental appliance cousins. The retention factor of which, is crucial, and much more acceptable of course, when there is available dentition, regardless of whether scattered or not. These more ideal conditions allow for a more stable and functional scenario. Partial dental appliances rest and wrap the internal or lingual surface of the available remaining teeth, namely “tooth borne resting”. The anchoring or clipping that holds the dental appliances in place is referred to as “tooth borne retention” and normally expressed to patients as “clasping”. The rest of the dental appliance in most cases, simply just sits onto the soft tissues commonly refered to as “gums” This is termed as Being “tissue borne”.
Dental appliances are prosthetic oral appliances that are constructed from synthetic material which, consist of acrylic, composite or porcelain teeth that are made in several forms, shapes such as square, tapered, round and oval. The synthetic teeth available will vary in size, colour and shape and the appropriate criteria is decided and ordered by the practitioner. The most important factors of this stage will of course be dependant on the patient’s physiological dimensions. In the case of partial dentures, the practitioner would have to be very accurate in defining the required order, as they have to replace the missing teeth precisely in order to look as close as possible to the adjacent natural dentition. The synthetic teeth will be inserted into an acrylic sub base that will form the major body of the dental appliance giving it the strength and shape. The pink acrylic structure will also fit and surround the oral tissues and surfaces moulded for the particular patient’s fitting surface. These bases can be made for either the maxilla (upper) or Mandibular (lower) oral ridges. Practitioner should endeavour to fulfill all criteria for a well-constructed dental appliance, such as, comfort, and correct dimensional fit that can help to preserve the patient’s health and give the patient a realistic appearance to reinforce their social confidence. Dental appliances sit directly on the gum and held stable and in it’s required position by either atmospheric pressured suction and or retention, which is created by forming bodily or mechanical force commonly called clasps. Facial muscles and the lateral portions of the tongue are other factors that will eventually become effective in maintaining the dental prosthesis further. However, both the tongue and facial muscles could be a perpetual hindrance initially.
Implant over dentures always use some sort of anchor to stabilize the appliance, which are made to either clip onto or permanently be fixed by the appropriate practitioner. Metal abutments that are either specially produced and inserted into available healthy, unaffected and strong teeth/roots made to maintain the denture stability by form of fixed or self removable clip type. Both types of dental implant formats are onset onto well-adapted implants, that would have been pre-inserted some months prior, by a qualified implant experienced dental or prosthedontic practitioner.
Before a denture can be created and placed, a patient needs to have an initial consultation and evaluation by a Denture practitioner who will undertake a comprehensive dental examination and a medical and dental history.
The clinical dental appliance manufacturing process requires multiple visits to the denture clinic. In some cases, it is necessary to prepare the mouth and all available teeth. Impressions or negative moulds of the mouth and gums are taken and sent to a dental laboratory where the denture will be started by a dental technician. This is depending on the type of dental appliance ordered (e.g. fully adjustable dental appliances sent to master dental Techs) Finally, the denture needs to be fitted and most likely adjusted for the best possible fit. The patient may require numerous follow-up appointments for further adjustments.
Adjustment time could be quite extensive for their new dental appliances. The patient might feel as though the dental appliance could be, for instance, bulky, loose or even awkward at first. Other symptoms patients may experience are soreness, discomfort or excessive saliva. So, until patients become accustom to the dental appliance, the normal eating process changes in their eating habits would need to be changed.
Despite the compliant wearer of a synthetic dental appliance, people with dental appliances will still require regular denture related dental examinations. People's mouths change gradually and unnoticeably. This natural and perpetual change in the mouth and jaw occur with simple factors like, advanced ageing, which will require dentures to be adjusted over time. Ultimately, depending on the level of oral change and wear, dentures may even need to be replaced. Adjustments may consist of a simple ease to a relining base of the denture or even as major as a rebuilding.
The changes in your mouth may require the need for replacement dentures, regardless of whether the patient might assume the current dentures look and feel adequate. This natural phenomena effects every body to some extent and I associate it to my eyesight, where I know my vision has depleted and therefore my sight is effected and therefore seek to renew my eyeglasses to restore my appropriate sight. Other problems that I have come across are patients who attempt to fix or attempt a self-modification. This could create huge rectification problems for the practitioner. Dental appliances will need restructuring every 2 to 3 years and renewed every 5 to 6 year. The degeneration will differ from person to person and of course, will greatly depend on many factors which, includes, weight, nutrition, blood pressure, bite strength, medication, your general health, etc. This can influence the fit and comfort of your dental appliance.
Of course, as with all prosthesis, disadvantages that will be apparent and must be addressed to patients are, that there are no artificial dental appliances, which work as well as healthy, naturel teeth. Also, any dentures are susceptible to breakage, chipping or cracking.
Ill-fitting dental appliances may sometimes be associated with certain oral infections causing sores and irritations. These are problems that are usually adorning to denture wearers.
When dental appliances are not worn and cared for as instructed by a dental prosthetist or denture practitioner, many long-term problems may be inevitable. Special care is always necessary for dentures, and obviously depending on what type of denture appliances, it is expected that specific care may be required. Your practitioner should give you all the information you need when receiving the dental appliance and given the required information, regarding care such as cleaning, sterilising, specific utilisation process and storing.
For many, healthy teeth are taken for granted until they lose their extremely important natural teeth in events such as; accidents, disease, or the effects of the aging process. Unfortunately, missing teeth to most people can take an obvious toll on ones self-esteem. Luckily, edentulous patients have many options these days, because of the advances with dental appliances.
Although dental appliance help retain dental and facial aesthetic and at times the improvements are majorly obvious, the benefits of dentures extend beyond just the physical appearance. Without teeth to support the jaw and gums, the skin around the lips can fold, creating unnecessary wrinkles, and in some cases causing fungal infections at the corners of the mouth called angilar chelitis, and also impairing a person to speak clearly due to dimensional alterations. Of course, not forgetting the extreme problematic physiological concerns that may arise to ones health. Lack of proper mastication, migration of available dentition, gum recession, expansion of tongue and intra-oral tissues, mechanical destruction of oral tissues, TMJ dysfunction, TMJ destruction, oral-facial muscular pain and disfunction and many more. All of these scenarios factors will cause complications that may inevitably and dramatically affect a person’s quality of life and overall living lifestyle.
Full upper dental appliances and in very few cases, lowers are held in place in the mouth by suction. In some cases when adequate suction is not possible, the use of adheasive is necessary.
With partial appliances after any necessary repairs to the natural teeth are made, a well fitting denture should be expected. In terms of procedure, it is basically similar for that of a partial denture as performed for a full denture. It is almost identical. First impressions are used to make a stone cast models. These models will be the basis of the denture construction. Several visits are needed to note all dimensions and use the necessary information throughout the fabrication of the dental appliance. A try in of pre-dental wax is pertinent; making sure that the dental appliances fit well with the existing natural teeth. Overall, fabrication can take up to two weeks for a complete acrylic appliance and up to six week for a metal-based appliance.
Dentures still have their limitations. Like other artificial prosthetics, they do not perform as well as natural teeth. Practitioners should advise patients with few natural teeth remaining to keep them and consider a partial dental appliance in order to anchor with those teeth, rather than making the drastic decision of removing all the teeth because patients may assume that ”they will finally have a better looking smile”. It could turn out to be the worst decision they ever make.
Dental appliances have a pink-coloured base that resembles the gums and soft tissues. It is composed of acrylic resin and is placed over the alveolar ridge. The synthetic dentition can be made of either porcelain or acrylic resin materials. These days both have excellent qualities. Partial dentures may have additional parts such as, metal clasps, bars, or precision interlocking attachments to hold and/or secure the appliance to he natural dentition.
In previous years, tooth removal was a prevalent procedure and of course dental appliances were considered an inevitable part of aging. Stupidly, and just as incredibly, some people had many healthy teeth removed and had them replaced with complete dental appliances. Luckily, this practice has greatly diminished in recent years.
Earlier research that was conducted in the late 1980’s, where it was recorded that 31 percent of the population were edentulous. In the last couple of years research reported that 25 percent of the population over the age of 60 were mainly, partially edentulous, or had all their dentition missing. Luckily there has been a large decline.
Currently, although diminishing in numbers, dental appliances are worn by millions of people around the world. It has been proved that conscientious dental hygiene and care, including regular dental examinations, can place most patients in a better position of retaining their natural dentition for much longer. However, recent technological advancements have resulted in dental appliances that fit comfortably and mimic the look and feel of natural dentition. | 
