Missing teeth can lower your confidence and make you uncomfortable. If you are considering a replacement, you can use dentures. They are more affordable than other restorative options and are minimally invasive, resulting in quicker healing and fewer complications. Additionally, they provide instant results. However, adjusting to the restorations requires time. You will feel uncomfortable eating for the first few days. Also, you will have difficulties pronouncing certain words and must practice the words out loud to regain normal pronunciation.
To make the right choice about dentures, you should understand how they will impact your life. Your choice of treatment should not focus solely on filling gaps. You should consider your budget, oral and general health goals, and lifestyle. Here is a guide explaining the pros and cons of dentures to help you select a restorative procedure that suits your lifestyle and oral needs.
Pros of Choosing Dentures
Dentures offer several benefits over other teeth-restoration procedures. These benefits include:
They Conveniently and Effectively Restore Your Confidence and Social Engagement
The impact of tooth loss extends beyond the physical, affecting your mental health. Tooth loss limits your dietary choices and adversely impacts your speech, resulting in severe psychological consequences. The gaps in your mouth caused by tooth loss make you self-conscious about your smile and cause embarrassment when you interact socially. These feelings can dent your mental health, triggering social anxiety. You begin to actively avoid social engagements that involve conversing, laughing, or smiling. Taking pictures with friends and relatives or speaking in public becomes a huge task. Your mental health takes a hit, affecting your career and quality of life.
Fortunately, you can use dentures to restore your smile immediately. Dentures come as a complete set of teeth for an arch, giving your smile a radical transformation. An enhanced, flawless smile goes a long way toward improving your confidence and smile. You start to feel at ease when interacting with people.
Additionally, the restored appearance helps you regain your confidence. You start living fully because, socially and emotionally, you are in a better place. Tooth loss restricts your diet. However, when you use dentures, you begin to enjoy a wider range of foods, as you can chew properly. This improves your overall health, and restored chewing ability boosts your confidence.
They Restore your Speech Function
Dental dentures re-establish the correct dental structure, improving your phonetics and speech. With clear communication, you go back to engaging in social conversations and giving speeches, giving you the confidence you need to live a quality life.
Good speech needs the coordination of the tongue, teeth, palate, and lips. If the teeth, especially incisors and canines, are missing, the structural integrity of your mouth is impaired, leading to speech problems. They distort the pronunciation of sounds, such as S and Z. Missing the anterior teeth means that you must speak with hesitation or adjust the tongue, which is embarrassing and can lead to social anxiety. Dentures restore the original tooth structure, and within a few weeks of practice, you regain your normal pronunciation.
Dentures Improve Your Facial Structure and Bone Support
Another benefit of dentures is that they enhance your facial and bone structure, improving your appearance and helping keep the remaining natural teeth healthy. Typically, when you lose several teeth, the alveolar bone begins to resorb because of a lack of stimulation by the missing teeth during chewing.
When you chew food, the pressure produced signals the cells responsible for bone formation to maintain the bone density. Nevertheless, when you lose teeth, the bone no longer receives the stimulation necessary to maintain its density, leading to bone resorption. Bone deterioration is painless, gradual, and involves the alveolar bone losing crucial minerals. Within 12 months, the jawbone significantly loses density, and the deterioration continues gradually until it begins to affect the facial structure.
Jawbone resorption leads to vertical dimension collapse, resulting in sagging of the muscles and skin in the lower face, including the nose. You develop wrinkles and creases, making you look older than you actually are. The chin turns forward and upwards, creating an unwanted sunken facial expression. As the jawbone continues to shrink, the stability of the remaining natural teeth is compromised, causing further tooth loss.
You can use traditional dentures to restore your facial appearance. Even though these do not stimulate the jawbone because they are not implanted, they reestablish the vertical height and shape lost due to vertical facial collapse. Additionally, they restore the missing aspect of your facial structure, restoring your physical appearance and confidence.
Because the old dentures do not rejuvenate the jawbone to restore its density, you should consider more advanced restorative procedures, such as implant-supported dentures. The titanium posts act as natural tooth roots, stimulating the jawbone, which sends signals to osteoblast cells that help in bone formation. When a new bone begins to form, the jawbone regains the original density, providing the support the muscles and skin around the face require to maintain your facial structure.
Dentures are Affordable
Compared to dental bridges and implant-supported dentures, traditional dentures are affordable when replacing multiple missing teeth. Shop around for prices from local dentists and compare the quotations to find dentists offering uncompromised services at reasonable prices. Furthermore, you can check with your health insurer to see if they cover the treatment, as this will further reduce the cost.
Dentures Safeguard Your Oral Health
Missing teeth exposes you to several oral problems. First, they cause the teeth adjacent to the open sockets to move into the spaces, leading to misalignment or crowding. Misaligned teeth are difficult to clean because the brush and floss do not reach the hidden areas of the tooth to remove debris. As a result, the teeth accumulate plaque and calculus, creating a conducive environment for harmful bacteria to produce acids that erode enamel, leading to cavities and decay.
Additionally, when the infection spreads to the gums, it causes gingivitis, which is reversible. However, when you fail to seek treatment on time, the disease advances to periodontal disease, which causes several complications, including further tooth loss. So, replacing missing teeth with dentures helps protect the remaining healthy natural teeth.
Disadvantages of Dentures
When considering dentures for your missing teeth, it is important to weigh the disadvantages to determine if they outweigh the advantages. The common disadvantages of the procedure are:
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Dentures Require A Lot of Time to Adjust to
The main disadvantage of traditional dentures is that they require a lot of time to adjust. They feel odd in the mouth for the first few weeks because the muscles of the tongue and cheeks have not become used to adjusting the restorations. You will feel uncomfortable eating, and you will require a few weeks of practice to learn how to eat properly with the new devices.
Similarly, it takes time to learn how to pronounce certain words after the procedure. You must practice pronouncing out loud the letters you are having problems pronouncing until you regain clear speech. If you are looking for immediate improvements in your speech or chewing, dentures might not be the best option due to the long adjustment period.
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The Old Dentures Do Not Rejuvenate the Jawbone
Another downside of traditional dentures is that they do not rejuvenate the jawbone, as they are only used as a tooth replacement option. Dentures are not attached to the jawbone, meaning they provide minimal or no stimulation, which is essential for the resorbed jawbone to regenerate. However, advanced restorative treatments, such as implant-anchored dentures, are implanted into the jawbone as substitutes for the original jawbone, providing crucial stimulation to restore jawbone density.
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Dentures are Unstable
Additionally, dentures may feel loose in the first few weeks, leading to wobbling, shifting, or slipping. The instability causes them to rub against the gum tissue, causing sores. You will incur additional costs for denture adhesives that provide stability and retention for your restorations. Instead of experiencing these challenges, you should consider implant-anchored dentures, as they are more stable. The artificial tooth roots are surgically implanted into the jawbone, stabilizing the denture in the mouth. You do not have to be afraid that your dentures will slip when laughing, talking, or eating.
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Several Appointments are Time Consuming and Costly
Lastly, you require several additional appointments after the denture treatment, making the procedure costly in the long run. You will need follow-up appointments in the first few weeks to readjust or reline the dentures. Several appointments mean you must adjust your schedule to accommodate them. If the dental clinic is far from your job or home, you will spend several hours on the road, which is time you could have used at work or for other productive activities.
Also, traditional dentures might require repairs, depending on how you care for them and the material used. These translate into more visits to the dental clinic and additional repair expenses. In the long run, you end up incurring more costs than if you had opted for a procedure, such as a dental implant, whose initial cost is high.
Types of Dentures
After the examination of your teeth and the confirmation that you need dentures, the dentist will inform you about the available types of dentures and which is best for you, depending on the extent of tooth loss and your budget. They include:
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Partial Dentures
The dentist will recommend partial dentures in case you still have some teeth that can be used to hold the new teeth. Partial dentures rest on a pink plastic base whose color mimics your gums. This plastic base can be attached to a metal structure that provides anchorage. During treatment, the dentist places the device in the space left by missing teeth and attaches it to the adjacent natural teeth. Some dentures come with clasps that attach to the remaining natural teeth, offering additional anchorage.
Partial dentures are removable. The clasps attach them to the natural teeth for effortless removal during brushing or before bed. Additionally, you can wear partial dentures as a temporary restoration, awaiting osseointegration or gum healing.
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Full Dentures
Also called complete dentures, full dentures replace a complete arch of missing teeth. Like partial dentures, the base of a complete denture is made of a plastic material resembling the color of the gums and anchors a complete arch of artificial teeth. Full dentures are placed on the gums and depend on the roof of your mouth (palate) or lower bone ridge for anchorage. For better stability and retention, you can use a denture adhesive, a glue that holds your appliance in place.
A complete denture can be immediate or conventional. Immediate dentures are premade and can be attached immediately after tooth removal. If you are a candidate for immediate dentures, the procedure can be completed on the same day. Nevertheless, they are used as temporary restorations while you await the gums to heal after an extraction. Additionally, they control bleeding and swelling and help the gums adjust to future permanent dentures. The downside of immediate dentures is that they fit the gums before healing, meaning you will require adjustments after the gums heal and shrink. So, consider immediate dentures as a temporary option before the conventional ones are ready.
If you are not a candidate for immediate full dentures, the dentist will recommend the conventional ones. These are fabricated after tooth extraction, and you must wait for twelve weeks to receive the final restoration.
Complete dentures cover a full arch in the upper or lower jaw. Further, they are removable, and dentists encourage you to remove them before bed.
Other types of dentures include:
- Implant-Anchored dentures
- Overdentures
- Snap-on dentures
Find a Skilled Cosmetic Dentist Near Me
Whether dentures are suitable for your oral problems depends on your lifestyle, budget, and oral needs. So, it is critical to study all the pros and cons of the procedure and understand the available modern denture treatment options and denture alternatives before making a decision. You must consult a knowledgeable dental expert about your denture options and find one that suits you.
At Lasting Impressions Dental Spa, we perform a comprehensive exam to establish your eligibility for treatment and tailor a plan according to your budget and needs. Give us a call at 818-751-5100 and book an appointment today in Encino, CA.
