Cost-Effective Tooth Replacement
Popularly known as “false teeth,” dentures are a form of dental prosthesis used in cases where a person is missing one or more of their teeth. Getting fitted with the denture normally helps people with their speech and eating. The right dentures in Northampton can also greatly improve your self-confidence.
Why Choose Northampton Dental Specialists Group For Dentures?
- Dentists With Over 25 Years Of Experience
- Dental Sedation Available For Comfort
- Natural-Looking Materials
Who's a Good Candidate for Dentures?
Most patients missing several or more teeth are good candidates for dentures. We’ll thoroughly examine your mouth to check on your oral health, and if there is a condition that could complicate your treatment, we can take care of it before you can receive your customized appliance. From there, we can customize a full or partial prosthetic to suit your needs! Here’s a quick guide to the qualities that make for a good denture candidate, but please contact our office if you’d like to know more.
Effects of Missing Teeth
The American College of Prosthodontists reports that the most common causes of tooth loss are enamel decay, gum disease, and oral injuries such as those resulting from blows to the face or falls. The loss of one or more teeth can lead to a wide range of oral and overall health issues such as gum injuries, dental drift, indigestion, malnutrition, further tooth loss, difficulty speaking, and diminished self-esteem.
What Qualifies You for Dentures?
Dentures can be an excellent solution for virtually everyone who has experienced significant tooth loss, lives with severe dental sensitivity, or whose teeth are extensively decayed as long as they have healthy gums and jawbones. If your mouth isn’t ready for dentures yet, you may be able to become an excellent candidate after receiving restorative treatments like gum disease therapy at our Northampton office.
The right type of denture for you depends on the number of teeth you are missing. A few or many teeth missing throughout the mouth may be addressed best with partial dentures, but the loss of an entire dental arch usually requires the placement of a full denture. Traditional dentures can be a cost-effective treatment for patients on a budget, but implant dentures enjoy superior longevity and exert maximum chewing power.
Alternative Tooth-Replacement Options
Patients who aren’t suitable candidates for dentures may be able to replace their teeth with other prosthetic devices. We offer:
- Dental bridges: These devices consist of a line of one or more artificial teeth supported by two dental crowns placed on healthy teeth or two dental implants inserted into the jawbone. Unless they are supported by implants, placing these devices requires the permanent alteration of the healthy teeth on either side of the gap.
- Dental implants: These appliances are titanium posts surgically inserted into the jawbone and fused with its structure through the natural process of osseointegration, and they can support lifelike restorations that deliver superior chewing power. While implants are more costly than traditional dentures, they can last much longer.
Types of Dentures
There are three main types of dentures: partial, full, and implant dentures. Each has a unique function to serve unique needs, and you can learn more about them with the information below.
Partial Dentures
Partial dentures are useful for those who still have some of their natural teeth. They are individually crafted to fit around the remaining teeth, using clips. Both the “gum” base and artificial teeth can be colored to provide a good match with surrounding teeth and gum tissue.
Full Dentures
When you are missing all of your teeth, the type of dentures that you would be getting are known as full dentures. The artificial teeth used with the prosthetic are fitted to a plate that sits right over the gums. If it is an upper denture, it would rest on the roof of your mouth.
Dentures normally have a gum-colored acrylic base, although the inner part may be constructed from metal. But don’t worry – the base is distant from the teeth so that it is not visible when you open your mouth.
Implant Dentures
Dentures can be retained by dental implants, giving them all sorts of benefits, including improved stability, comfort, aesthetics, and a natural bite feel. Instead of allowing the denture to rest on your gums, we’ll secure them in place by strategically placing four or more dental implants and attaching them to the denture.
The Benefits of Dentures
It’s not hard to see why dentures are such an incredibly popular way to address tooth loss. These remarkably functional and comfortable appliances provide a number of significant benefits that can considerably improve a patient’s oral and overall health as well as their day-to-day life. Here’s a brief guide to a few of the benefits dentures from Northampton Dental Specialists Group can provide, but please contact our office online if you would like to know more.
Psychological Benefits
Tooth loss can take a significant toll on your self-esteem and make it harder to smile proudly at gatherings with family and friends. This can lead to feelings of depression and isolation and leave you less willing to engage socially. Restoring lost teeth with lifelike dentures can allow a patient to feel more confident in their grin so they can smile more generously, which can help them maintain a cheery mood and a positive outlook.
Clearer Enunciation
Tooth loss alters the way air moves about the mouth during speech, and this can make it difficult to pronounce words clearly. Fortunately, dentures act in the place of the missing teeth during speech, and this can make it much easier to form words properly. You can expect to find speaking to be increasingly easy as you get more practice conversing while wearing your dentures.
Improves Nutrition
The loss of even a single tooth can make it more difficult to chew properly, and some people who are missing many teeth may give up on many nutritious foods entirely since they are too hard to eat. Since dentures restore a significant amount of your original chewing power, they can make it easier to enjoy a healthy diet that includes many interesting flavors and textures.
Preserves Oral Health
Tooth loss can leave the smile vulnerable to damage such as gum injuries and uneven dental wear as well as jawbone atrophy that leads to issues like dental drift, oral infections, and further tooth loss. Dentures can help support the remaining teeth so they can stay in healthy positions while protecting the gums and natural enamel from damage.
Expands Opportunities
Missing teeth can make it difficult to smile generously at business events, and this can make it hard to leave favorable first impressions that lead to new opportunities. Restoring your smile with dentures can make it much easier to win trust, build rapport, and close sales, and it may even lead to a promising new job or a lucrative promotion.
Dentures FAQs
Initially, your dentures should fit well because they are custom-made for your specific mouth. As time passes, however, the bone in your jaw will deteriorate, changing the shape of your gums. Consequently, you may reach the point where your dentures no longer fit as well as they used to. This can lead to soreness, swelling of the gums, trouble speaking, and other issues.
If you suspect that your dentures no longer fit properly, we recommend that you call our office as soon as possible. Oftentimes, we may be able to reline or re-adjust your prosthesis; in other cases, it may be necessary to replace it altogether.
Sleeping with your dentures is not recommended. Doing so can irritate your gums, and it can speed up the process of bone loss in your jaw. On top of that, wearing dentures while sleeping could raise your risk for pneumonia due to bacteria breeding in the dark, moist space underneath the prosthesis.
In short, it’s best to remove your dentures every night so that you can give your mouth a break while you sleep. Of course, you don’t want your dentures to dry out and lose their shape, so be sure to immerse them in a specialized denture-soaking solution before you head to bed.
Before you can receive dentures, you may need to have any remaining teeth extracted. Your mouth will be numbed for this procedure to prevent discomfort. However, you may experience some soreness during the recovery process. The discomfort should go away on its own after a few days, but you can manage it with an over-the-counter pain reliever such as ibuprofen.
As for the denture itself, it may cause a bit of irritation when you first start wearing it. This issue should eventually resolve itself once your mouth gets used to the prosthesis. Note that the adjustment period can potentially take months, but the exact length depends on the patient.
If your denture-related discomfort doesn’t seem to be getting any better over time, let our team know right away. We can double-check to make sure that your dentures fit as they should, and we can examine your mouth for any oral health issues that might require attention.
Certain kinds of foods can cause problems for denture-wearers. For example, peanut butter and other sticky foods can pull your prosthesis out of place, while overly hard foods like carrot sticks and apples could damage it. It’s therefore best to avoid these types of foods.
Additionally, trying to chew tough meats such as steak with dentures can be very uncomfortable. However, preparing such meats the right way can make them easier to handle. This means cooking them to make them more tender and cutting them into small, bite-sized pieces.