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If you’re missing teeth, modern dentistry offers more options than ever before for replacing them. With so many options for new teeth, it can be confusing to know the important differences between you options. Tooth loss is still treated by dentures, but there are now special kinds of dentures called overdentures that integrate the latest dental implant technology. Here’s the difference between traditional dentures and overdentures so you can make an informed choice in your care.
Traditional dentures are artificial teeth mounted in an acrylic base that looks like gums. Dentures are held in place by adhesives, natural suction, or a combination of both. Overdentures look like conventional dentures from the outside, but they are actually secured in your mouth by clipping or screwing onto titanium dental implants that have been placed in your jawbone. Because they clip onto a solid foundation in the form of dental implants, overdentures are more stable.
One of the biggest benefit of overdentures is a better eating experience and better nutrition. Conventional dentures can affect your ability to taste by covering your palate (roof of your mouth), where some of your taste buds are actually located. Overdentures don’t cover the palate. Foods you would have had to avoid (or cut up before eating) with unstable conventional dentures or missing teeth, like meats or crunchy vegetables, can be chewed by overdentures.
Speaking is also easier with secure overdentures. Your speech in general will be clearer, especially the letters “s” and “f” which can sometimes be muffled or lisped with conventional dentures that cover your palate.
In terms of your oral health, overdentures have the benefit of preventing bone loss. Overdentures transfer the force of your bite from you false teeth, through the dental implants, and into the bone of your jaw. Receiving this sensation from the implants tells your jaw to keep creating new bone, preventing the bone structure under your overdentures from shrinking away.
This shrinking of bone, called “resorption”, tends to happen in conventional dentures because there is no solid structure between the denture and the bone that tells the bone it’s still being used to bite. Jaw bone resorption is what causes traditional dentures to eventually stop fitting well and require adjustment, and can lead your cheeks looking more sunken and aged as your bone structure shrinks.
One potential advantage of conventional dentures is that they are more affordable initially than overdentures, because they do not involve the surgical placement of implants. However, over the long run, the adjustments or replacements associated with conventional dentures may add up. Overdentures are much less likely to have these problems, so the initial investment could eventually save you money in the future.
If circumstances have left you without your teeth at a relatively young age, it can be easy to feel like you’re the only one. As a result, many patients think there is a stigma against younger people getting restorative dentistry. They think only seniors have dental implants and dentures. Not true!As dental professionals, we don’t want anyone to miss out on a functional and beautiful smile, so we want to guide you past you preconceived notions about restorative dentistry.
Young people can lose their teeth for many reasons. While bad habits like smoking and poor nutrition and dental hygiene during childhood are common reasons, other reasons include accidents, genetic conditions, drug use, and side affects of eating disorders.
Many patients avoid getting help because they are ashamed of their dental condition. Whatever caused you to lose your teeth, hiding your smile from the world and always worrying what people will think is no way to live your life!
No matter what your dental history, never be afraid to ask your dentist about the restorative and reconstructive solutions that may be available to you. Most dentists became dentists in order to help people, not judge them. Give us a chance to bring you all that our training and the latest dental technology has to offer.
There are many people as young as their twenties or thirties who have bridges, partial dentures, complete dentures or implants. These patients have put aside what’s happened in the past and embraced what modern dentistry can do for them today to give them healthier, more beautiful smiles.
Another thing to keep in mind is that the longer you put off dental restoration, the more damage there might be to repair, even if all your troublesome teeth have already been removed. When you lose teeth you also lose bone in your jaw, leading to a sunken or compressed looking facial structure that can make you look much older. This bone loss continues throughout your life unless we do something about it. Traditional dentures can restore the shape of your face, while implant supported dentures & individual dental implants can also help stop bone loss.
If tooth loss is keeping you from experiencing life the way you want to, please talk to the dentist about restoring your smile. We want to show you what’s possible!
Caring for your dentures is very different from caring for your natural teeth. It’s important to know what not to do so your dentures stay looking good and serving you well. The most affordable dentures are dentures that are well cared for!
Dropping your dentures is a surprisingly easy (and common) way to damage them. When you’re handling your dentures for cleaning, try thinking of them like a delicate china teacup. We suggest standing over a water-filled sink or lining your countertop with a hand towel. That way, if you do get butterfingers, there will be cushion for your dentures when they fall.
Your dentures are made out of softer stuff than teeth (a.k.a. the hardest substance in the human body), so the products intended for teeth are too harsh for dentures. Toothpaste contains abrasives that can create micro-scratches in dentures where bacteria can hide and grow. Instead, you can use a dental cleanser or even a mild dish soap to clean your dentures.
You should also avoid hard-bristled toothbrushes (which should be banished from the Earth as far as we’re concerned). Only use a soft-bristle brush to clean your dentures, ideally a denture brush made for that purpose, but in a pinch you can use any soft-bristle or “baby” toothbrush.
Sleeping in your dentures is not recommended because it doesn’t give your gums a chance to rest. You should remove and clean your dentures before bed. Be sure to place them in a denture soaking solution or water. Dentures that dry out can crack or warp, so be sure they’re always moist. You should never put your dentures in hot water because this can cause them to warp.
Even if you have a full set of dentures, you still have to care for the rest of your mouth. Be sure to brush your gums, tongue and palate (roof of your mouth) with a soft bristle brush to remove any debris or bacteria. This will freshen breath and stimulate circulation. If you have partial dentures, remove them before brushing your natural teeth with fluoride toothpaste, paying special attention to where any metal clasps attach to your teeth.
If your dentures don’t feel like they fit right and are creating significant discomfort, don’t just ignore it or stop wearing them. Even though they’re custom-made, new dentures often require a few adjustments to get the fit just right. Going back to the dentist one or twice is normal. Your dentures will also need adjustments over the years as your mouth gets used to them and as you age. Be sure to let the dentist know at your regular checkup whether there have been any changes in how your dentures fit or feel. The dentist may re-adjust, re-line, or re-make them, depending on your situation.
As dental professionals, our ultimate goal is for every one of our patients to live their whole lives without losing their teeth. However, in the unfortunate situation that a patient is missing their teeth, dentures are a great solution to return a smile to beauty and function. Dentures have a long and legendary history, and modern technology has made today’s dentures even more natural-looking and customized than ever before.
The earliest examples of dentures appeared in the 7th Century B.C. The ancient Etruscans used a combination of gold wire and human and animal teeth to create these early dentures. By the 5th Century B.C., ancient Romans were creating similar dentures. Wooden dentures appeared in Japan in the early 1500s. These dentures were similar to modern dentures in that they were carefully carved to match the shape of a person’s mouth. The Japanese later made dentures from stone, ivory and animal horn in addition to wood.
The number of people who need dentures has grown pretty quickly over the last few hundred years. As access to sugar and tobacco increased, mostly because of large sugar cane and tobacco plantations in the Americas, tooth decay became more common and widespread. The more people ate sugar and smoked, the more their teeth fell out. It makes sense that modern dentistry started to be developed around the same time.
Affordable dentures are a recent thing. For most of the history of dentures, they were an item reserved for the upper classes. The materials and expertise required to make them made dentures very expensive.
Contrary to popular belief, the first U.S. President, George Washington, did not have dentures made of wood. His dentures were made from carved hippopotamus ivory, gold wire, and human teeth. In fact, most dentures in the 1700s and 1800s were made with other people’s teeth, which had either been collected from bodies on battlefields or even stolen from graves! Thankfully, early dentists started developing porcelain dentures, which eventually eliminated the need to take teeth from the dead or those down on their luck.
Today, dentures are made from a specialized form of acrylic (a kind of durable, hard plastic) that can be made to look just like natural teeth and gums. While most dentures are held in place by friction/suction or adhesives, there are now dentures that can be held in place by mini dental implants. These implant-supported dentures are more secure and can even help prevent tooth-loss-related bone loss. The invention of dental implants in the last century also means that many people who might have gotten dentures in the past are replacing their teeth entirely with permanent prosthetic teeth, complete with a titanium tooth root.
We hope this history of dentures has made you grateful for the advances in modern dentistry. We certainly are!
The answer: Bone loss.
A common legend says that an astronaut who returned to Earth after an extended stay on a space station had bones so weak that he broke his arm lifting a tea cup. While this story may be an exaggeration, astronauts do lose bone density at a about ten times the rate of osteoporosis when in space (source) due to the absence of gravity.
What does gravity have to do with your bones? All the bones in your body get built up or broken down (resorbed) based on the amount of stress they’re under. For most of the bones in your body, their major stressor is gravity. However, for the bones of your jaw, their stress comes from biting and chewing. But when someone loses their teeth, this stress goes away, which can lead to jawbone being resorbed by the body.
While dentures are an aesthetic and functional replacement for teeth, they apply biting and chewing pressure to your gums, instead of directly to your jawbone like a natural tooth does. Because the roots of natural teeth are embedded in your bone, so when you bite or chew something, that force is transferred through your tooth into the bone of your jaw.
This bone loss explains why you can get a new set of dentures that fit perfectly right after they’ve been manufactured, but as time goes on, they fit more and more poorly, until they are loose and uncomfortable. The dentures themselves have not changed, but the shape of the bone under your gums has.
For this reason, many believe there is no such thing as truly affordable dentures. Even the best, highest quality dentures will eventually need to be replaced due to the biological reality of bone resorption. However, it’s important to note that bone loss in your jaw will happen even more rapidly if you don’t replace your teeth with anything at all. If you’re missing teeth, dentures can help you speak, eat and look normally again. Any dentures that allow you to get some of the normal function of your mouth back are affordable dentures!
For a permanent solution to bone loss after tooth loss, dental implants are the best option. That’s because implants act as an artificial tooth root that transfers biting and chewing force directly into your jawbone, just like a natural tooth. Because your bone is still under stress from the implant, it won’t be resorbed by your body. While dental implants are more of a financial investment at first, they’ll never have to be replaced like dentures, so you only have to pay for them once. Plus, they can be maintained just like real teeth, with daily brushing, flossing and semi-annual visits to the dental hygienist.
Dental implants have allowed for the invention of a new type of denture: the implant-supported denture. This type combines the affordability of dentures with the bone-stimulating qualities of implants to create a tooth replacement solution that is much more stable than traditional dentures that are held on with adhesives. This makes implant-supported dentures the most affordable dentures there are, both in terms of your wallet and your oral health!
The goal of modern dentistry is for each & every patient to keep all their teeth for their entire lifetime. As dental health awareness & dental technology have advanced over the last half century, we now see fewer older people who are missing all their teeth (a condition dentists call edentulism). Still, we find that people may loose a tooth or a few & not think much of it. The reality is that a missing tooth is far more than just a gap in your smile: it can have serious oral health & psychological effects down the line.
Bones are similar to muscles in that if you don’t stimulate them, they will start to atrophy. The bones in your jaws are stimulated when the force of biting & chewing travels down the root of your teeth into the bone. When you lose even a single tooth, the bone under where the tooth used to be starts to weaken & decrease in density. If you are missing all the teeth on your upper or lower jaw, this effect is even more pronounced, & can lead to the face having a sunken & shortened appearance that makes a person look much older.
Patients who have lost teeth also experience negative effects on their health & quality of life. Missing teeth can make it hard for people to eat healthy foods that might be difficult to chew, such as nuts, vegetables & meats. As a result, many patients with missing teeth also suffer from poor nutrition. Missing teeth can also have social consequences, as patients who are self conscious about their appearance or eating ability may avoid social activities that they once enjoyed.
If you are missing teeth it’s very important that you look into your options for tooth replacement as soon as possible. The longer you wait to replace a tooth, the worse your problems with bone loss & other consequences will be.
Dental implants are by far the best option for replacing teeth. A major reason for this is they replace both the tooth root & the crown. The fact that the replacement tooth is imbedded in the bone helps prevent further bone loss. The implant is an artificial tooth root that is anchored in the bone. The crown is a porcelain or ceramic tooth that is then attached to the metal implant using dental cement. Essentially, the only drawback to dental implants is the healing time, which can be as long as three months. But the result is permanent teeth that will last the rest of your life & be as functional as if you never lost your natural teeth. Plus, unlike other tooth restoration options, implants don’t ever have to be replaced or adjusted, so you only have to pay for them once.
Bridges are replacement teeth that are held in place by attaching to neighboring healthy teeth. While traditionally bridges have been made from gold, ceramic, or alloys, today the preferred kind of bridge is made entirely of ceramic. This provides the most natural-looking result. A ceramic bridge consists of a false tooth with hollow tooth crowns on either side. These hollow crowns are then cemented to nearby healthy teeth that have been reshaped & the false tooth in the middle fills the gap left by your missing tooth.
Bridges can help prevent bone loss in your jaw & also keep your remaining teeth from shifting into the gap, which can misalign your bite, make chewing difficult & even affect your appearance. While bridges are durable & long-lasting, most of the time they do need to be replaced eventually. Bridges are also a less desirable option than implants because they involve taking structure away from healthy teeth in order to attach the bridge, so the loss of one tooth ends up affecting several teeth.
Dentures are dental appliance that replace an entire arch of teeth (i.e. all the teeth on your upper jaw or lower jaw). Dentures consist of a plate that holds false teeth & gums that are held in place by fitting over your gums & the power of suction. Dentures are usually made of a durable resin material that is colored to look like your own natural teeth. Partials are used for patients who are missing a few, but not all, of the teeth in an arch. They consist of a plate that fits against the roof of the mouth, false teeth, & clips that attach to existing teeth to hold the partial in place.
While dentures & partials will restore the appearance of your smile & some of its function, they do not help prevent bone loss due to missing teeth. Even if you wear dentures the bones of your jaw will continue to diminish & change shape. As a result, you may need to have your dentures adjusted or replaced, as the original bone structure they were designed for will have changed. This is why, despite having a lower upfront cost, dentures can end up costing more than dental implants in the long run.
If you are missing teeth or know you are at risk of losing teeth, please don’t hesitate to talk to us about your options.
Whether you’ve lost teeth to decay, periodontal disease or an accident, we know that having a missing tooth can be embarrassing, inconvenient & often very uncomfortable. Luckily, there are many options for restoring your teeth, but with so many options, there is also some confusion. In this post we’re going to break down the choice between dentures & dental implants for replacing missing teeth.
Dentures are a set of false teeth that fit over the gums (full dentures) or clip into place on existing teeth (partial dentures). You can get dentures for your upper teeth, your lower teeth, or both. Dentures also have a gum-colored acrylic base that can be matched to the color of your actual gums to look natural.
Dental implants are an artificial tooth root made from a titanium metal post. The implant is inserted into the bone of the jaw under the gums, where it can act as the foundation for an artificial tooth, called a crown, to be permanently attached with a dental cement. Dental implants have ridges on them that make them resemble screws. The purpose of these ridges is actually to give the bone of your jaw more surface area to hold onto & grow around, a process called osseointegration. Once in place, dental implants & crowns are nearly indistinguishable from natural teeth & function just like them too.
Ultimately, most dentists will strongly encourage the use of implants for replacing missing teeth. Dentists know that dental implants are the best choice for both your oral health & your comfort. As much as we think about teeth on a daily basis, we don’t want you to have to think of yours constantly! Once a patient’s implants are placed & healed, they can return to a life with a fully functional smile.
Like any dental procedure, your choice of which treatment to undergo & the results you can expect all depend in your individual dental condition. When we make a recommendation of treatment for replacing missing teeth, we take your current oral health, your health history, your ultimate goals & your financial preferences into account. If you’re interested in either dentures or dental implants, please arrange a consultation with us.
