Dentures
Have you lost all of your natural teeth due to gum disease, tooth decay or injury? If you have, than you know that without your teeth, eating and speaking are much more difficult. At Stonebrook Family Dental, you have options. Replacing your missing teeth will not only benefit your appearance and your health, but it will also improve your speech and your ability to process the food you eat.
Advances in modern technology and science offer you an array of denture options to offer you effective replacement options for the tooth you are missing. Dr. Varley creates natural-looking appliances that fit your gums snugly, so you can talk and eat with confidence. Our team at Stonebrook Family Dental in Aurora, Colorado, is dedicated to helping you achieve your best smile. We work with you to create the best treatment plan for you and your specific dental needs.
Dentures and Nutrition
When you are missing teeth, you can expect to be confronted with various challenges that affect your overall health and lifestyle. Missing teeth can affect how you chew and eat and impact your overall nutrition. Missing teeth can cause difficulty in speaking, put stress on other teeth and cause your teeth to shift altering your facial appearance. Without support from missing teeth, facial muscles sag, making you look older than you are.What Are Your Denture Options?
There are two main categories of dentures that you can receive at Stonebrook Family Dental depending on your individual needs:
- Partial Dentures. Partial dentures are used when some teeth are missing, but some remain. Partial dentures are an appropriate solution when the other teeth in your mouth are healthy. It is always preferable to keep your natural teeth, however, if this is not an option, a full denture may be the right solution for you. Partial dentures prevent the remaining teeth from drifting over time. A partial denture is used to replace one or more teeth, but less than an entire arch. Partial dentures are fastened by clasps that anchor the partial to your neighboring teeth.
- Full (Complete) Dentures. Full dentures replace an entire set of teeth--both lower and upper. They are customized, replacement teeth that restore your beautiful smile, correct your bite, and restore your facial appearance. Lower full dentures rest on the gums and are secured over the gums and jawbone. Upper full dentures are held in place by the suction created between the denture and the roof of your mouth.
The Benefits of Partial Dentures
When you are missing one or more teeth, the bite pressures can shift in your mouth. This shifting can cause the other teeth to compensate for the “gap” in your bite. Following this, you may experience shrinking of both the soft tissues and the supporting bone close to your missing teeth. This can affect your physical appearance and can lead to more problems with your other teeth. A partial denture keeps the underlying structures of your mouth – your gums, jawbone, facial muscles, etc. – engaged and active. Prevent further shifting of the other teeth in your mouth, and enjoy the confidence of having a beautiful, complete smile with partial dentures.
The Advantage of Immediate Dentures
In our office, we make immediate dentures, meaning that on the day that your teeth are extracted, you immediately receive your dentures so that you never have to go without teeth. Immediate dentures will shift a little bit as the tissues heal and will need to be relined at a future visit, usually 6 months later. An immediate denture will allow you to avoid the embarrassment of living without teeth. We will begin the preparation for this procedure before your teeth are extracted.
Are You a Candidate for Dentures?
The best candidates for dentures are patients that suffer from significant tooth loss due to injury, genetics, or periodontal disease. Sometimes, there are cases when dentures are not an option for patients. There has to be enough healthy gum tissue and jawbone structure for the denture to secure to. If needed, you can first restore the health of the gum tissue and/or bone structure (through bone grafts or other methods) if there isn’t ample material to allow the dentures to remain in place.
Patients that are considering dentures must be willing (and able) to properly care for their dentures in order to be an ideal candidate. Dentures require dedicated care and good oral hygiene habits to keep the patient’s mouth healthy.
What About Dental Bridges?
Not all patients missing teeth need dentures. Patients that are only missing a few teeth can benefit from a dental bridge. Dental bridges are used to fill the spaces left by missing teeth by attaching to the teeth neighboring the gaps and using prosthetic teeth to fill the gaps.
Call for a Dentures Consultation
If you have missing teeth and have questions on how to replace them, contact our office at 303-872-7907. You have options. Learn how we can help restore your smile, your health and your confidence! Dr. Varley is a family dentist in Aurora, Colorado, with convenient access to the communities of Highlands Ranch, Aurora, Castle Rock and Lone Tree.