Dentures
What is a denture?
This is an example of a set of dentures. They are made from acrylic, and custom fabricated for your mouth.
A denture is a prosthesis that is used to replace an entire set of teeth for either the top or bottom jaw. Dentures are indicated when a patient has lost all of their teeth on either the top or bottom or both. There are several different options when it comes to dentures, and all of them offer different advantages. A typical set of dentures takes anywhere from 4-8 appointments to fabricate correctly depending on your unique situation. There is a tremendous amount of work that goes into properly making a quality denture.
full mouth implant retained fixed denture or hybrid Denture
This is a type of restoration that can replace all the teeth in an arch by using a series of 4-6 implants. After the implants are osseointegrated, a full arch prosthesis is made and either cemented or screwed onto the implants. This is a fixed denture that stays in place and is not removed by the patient. The obvious advantage to this type of restoration is the idea that it does not need to be removed from the patients mouth. This is also the restoration that will feel and function the most like a patients natural teeth.
Over-denture
The top picture shows an implant based fixed bridge used to restore all the teeth in an arch. This may be used on either top or bottom, and is a non-removable appliance. The bottom picture shows a dentures that is being retained by implants. This is a unit that is removable but once "snapped" into place is very stable unlike plain dentures. This is called an "overdenture".
An over denture is a great option for many patients. This type of prosthesis aims to please those who want more stability than a typical denture, but who don't want to make the investment from a hybrid type denture. An over denture is made to look much like a typical denture however it is combined with a few implants (usually 2-4) that are fitted with an o-ring type attachment. Once the patient places their overdenture into their mouth, they are able to "snap" it into place using the ball and o-ring attachments that have been placed on the implants. This as you can imagine will increase the stability of the appliance significantly! PS- Typical dentures can usually be retrofitted into an over denture scenerio! So, if you have a set of typical dentures, and retention is a problem for you, we would love to talk to you about retro-fitting them into stability!!!