Decatur, AL Dentures

Why Should I Consider Dentures?

There are times when, despite your best efforts, you find that you are not able to keep your natural teeth. Sometimes circumstances have kept you away from the dentist longer than you intended or you are predisposed to dental problems, but whatever the cause, there are a couple of solutions.

One of the options is to place dental implants. While there are affordable dental implant options, the use of any implants raises the costs and it could place those costs out of the range of the budgets of some patients.

The other option is complete removable dentures. Let’s give you some information about how we create those for you.

Premium Dentures

At Drake and Wallace Dentistry, we don’t like to go with bargain basement dentures. There are shortcuts that can be taken and cheap materials that can be used. These result in dentures that wear away quickly and have problems with fitting properly. We want the denture to be comfortable, to last for years, and to look just like your natural teeth. Most patients don’t want it to be obvious that you have false teeth.

Two-Impression Technique

Dental schools teach a two-impression technique. One of the shortcuts used by many dentists is eliminating the second impression. But we don’t do that. The first impression is used to make a patient-specific model of the arch and register the extent of the tissue that will be covered by the dentures. The next impression will be with material that is more sensitive to the intricacies in the arches, which will be used to make a more detailed model to create the final denture. The result is a more accurate fit of the denture.

Quality Materials

There are a wide variety of types of materials that can be used in the denture base and the teeth. Acrylic teeth, for example, are less expensive and much easier to work with, saving the dentist time and expense. We use composite teeth that are more durable, more stain-resistant, and more lifelike.

Denture Considerations—Spacing, Speaking, Alignment

Spacing—For a fully endentulous patient, there are no teeth to use to navigate things such as spacing between the upper and lower jaw. Incorrect spacing can create problems, both aesthetic and functional, that will ultimately result in an unhappy patient. We like to take the time to get a correct vertical dimension, and will go so far as to make a trial denture in wax to test that we have measured that correctly.

Speaking Issues—Another possible challenge if the dentures are not properly created is that speech issues may develop. Letters that potentially cause a lisp, or sometimes even whistling, are the result of dentures that have teeth that aren’t aligned correctly, or are made to an incorrect vertical dimension. Having your dentist take the time to make the models and test things like spacing and alignment helps ensure that speaking issues are avoided.

Bite Alignment—Proper alignment of the teeth in your dentures is imperative to their function and comfort. We will use an articulator instrument meant to mimic the way a person moves their jaw in real life. An uneven bite can put unnecessary force on chewing surfaces, which can make chewing uncomfortable, but even more concerning, also has the potential to damage the denture. Using the articulator means that we will have tested and retested to ensure that we have created a perfect bite for you and your dentures.

Other Denture Considerations

There are some drawbacks to even the best-made removable dentures. Any denture that isn’t anchored by dental implants will move around somewhat in your mouth. The lower denture is more susceptible to movement and there is a learning curve to managing this. It is also possible to prevent this by anchoring the denture with implants. We can give you the options available for you and the pros and cons of each.

If you would like to make an appointment for an examination, we would be happy to see you. Just call us, or you can visit our request an appointment page, give us your information, and we will call you.