WHAT ARE DENTURES?
Dentures are a set of removable artificial teeth which replaces the missing teeth. They can be upper jaw denture & lower jaw denture.
HOW MANY TYPES OF DENTURES ARE THERE?
1. Partial dentures: Having one or more teeth.
2. Complete dentures: replacing entire set of teeth.
They can also be classified in to
1. Tissue supported dentures
2. Implant supported dentures
Depending on the material used they may be classified as
1. All acrylic dentures.
2. Cast partial dentures (with metal base)
3. Flexible dentures.
WHAT ARE THE ADVANTAGES OF DENTURE?
Dentures can help patients in a number of ways:
1. Mastication – chewing efficiency of the patient is improved.
2. Aesthetics – presence of teeth provide a natural facial appearance, and wearing a denture to replace missing teeth provides support for the lips and cheeks and corrects the collapsed appearance that occurs after losing teeth.
3. Phonetics – by replacing missing teeth, especially the front teeth, patients are better able to speak by improving pronunciation of many words.
4. Self-Esteem – Patients feel better about themselves & their self confidence improves a lot.
WHAT ARE IMPLANT SUPPORTED DENTURES?
Maxillary denture is usually relatively straightforward & has a whole palate for support so that it is stable without slippage. A lower full denture on the other hand has constantly moving tongue which destabilize it so it should or must be supported by 2-4 implants placed in the lower jaw for support. A lower denture supported by 2-4 implants is a far superior product than a lower denture without implants.
