What are they and why are the needed?

Dentures are removable appliances which replace missing teeth in your mouth. They are fabricated from acrylic and often they are combined with different metals for increased strength and stability. Dentures are important for patients who are missing teeth in order to maintain their current teeth in ideal health. When there are missing teeth in the mouth, these gaps often allow for adjacent teeth to tip or drift into the space. Also, teeth in the opposing arch often erupt into the opposing space – all of these problems cause significant damage to the patient’s bite, the health of the gums, bones and tissues around the adjacent teeth and can lead to the loss of these adjacent teeth. Dentures increase the chewing efficiency of patients, improve the esthetics of their teeth as well as their overall appearance and help in their speech.

What is involved in the procedure?

When considering dentures, your overall oral health will first be evaluated at a complete examination. Initial impressions or moulds of your upper and lower teeth are often taken in order to study your teeth, your current bite and the existing and missing teeth in your mouth. After this initial appointment, the treatment plan will be presented to you along with different options available to you. Once a course of treatment has been decided, a final set of impressions or moulds are taken and sent to a commercial laboratory to begin the process of making your dentures. There are often 3-4 appointments set 1 week apart between this first appointment at which your final impressions or moulds were taken and the last appointment at which you walk out of the office with your brand new smile. At these appointments different measurements are taken, different stages of the dentures are fitted and tried into your mouth and you will approve different stages of the denture as you move along in the process.