WHAT ARE DENTURES?
Dentures are a set of removable artificial teeth which replaces the missing teeth. They can be upper jaw denture & lower jaw denture.
HOW MANY TYPES OF DENTURES ARE THERE?
- Partial dentures: Having one or more teeth.
- Complete dentures: replacing entire set of teeth.
They can also be classified in to
- Tissue supported dentures
- Implant supported dentures
Depending on the material used they may be classified as
- All acrylic dentures.
- Cast partial dentures (with metal base)
- Flexible dentures.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF DENTURE?
Dentures can help patients in a number of ways:
- Mastication - chewing efficiency of the patient is improved.
- Aesthetics - presence of teeth provide a natural facial appearance, and wearing a denture to replace missing teeth provides support for the lips and cheeks and corrects the collapsed appearance that occurs after losing teeth.
- Phonetics - by replacing missing teeth, especially the front teeth, patients are better able to speak by improving pronunciation of many words.
- Self-Esteem - Patients feel better about themselves & their self confidence improves a lot.
WHAT ARE IMPLANT SUPPORTED DENTURES?
Maxillary denture is usually relatively straightforward & has a whole palate for support so that it is stable without slippage. A lower full denture on the other hand has constantly moving tongue which destabilize it so it should or must be supported by 2-4 implants placed in the lower jaw for support. A lower denture supported by 2-4 implants is a far superior product than a lower denture without implants.
