“I don’t want dentures.” We hear it a lot, often from someone who watched a parent struggle with them. It’s one of the most common things people type into a search bar about their teeth, usually followed by “what are my options?”
Often there are some. Sometimes dentures really are the answer. Here’s how we tell the difference.
The short answer: whether you can avoid dentures depends mostly on how much bone is left around your teeth and how prone you are to gum disease and to decay. When the foundation is there, your own teeth can often be kept and rebuilt, with implants where they’re needed. When it isn’t, or when health or budget rule out the alternatives, a denture can still be the right call, and an upper denture usually does well.
The first two questions
When someone tells me they don’t want dentures, I look at two things first:
- How much bone is left around the teeth, and whether you’re prone to gum disease. Teeth are only as good as the bone holding them. Gum disease usually starts with bleeding gums.
- Decay, and whether you’re prone to it. Some decay can be repaired. Some has gone so far there isn’t enough tooth left to rebuild.
Those two answers decide most of what’s possible. The three ways teeth are lost.
Options short of a full denture
- Keeping and rebuilding your own teeth, with crowns, bonding and a bite that works, and implants only where a tooth can’t be saved. How a full mouth reconstruction works.
- Individual implants for the teeth that are missing or can’t be saved. Replacing a missing tooth.
- A bridge, when the teeth on either side of a gap are strong.
- A denture that snaps onto implants, which still comes out for cleaning but doesn’t float on your gums.
- A full arch of fixed teeth on implants, which is screwed in and doesn’t come out. All-on-4 and full-arch implants. If you’ve already been told that’s your only option, get a second opinion first.
A surgeon places any implants. We plan the case with them from the tooth side, and we make and look after the teeth that go on top.
Do dentures make you look older?
Old, worn-out dentures can. As the teeth on a denture wear down, the lower jaw closes closer to the upper one than it should, and the lips start to look off. That’s a lot of what people picture when they think of someone in dentures.
Upper and lower dentures aren’t the same
Upper dentures can do well. The palate gives them a wide surface to hold on to.
Lower dentures are usually really hard for people to get used to. They sit on a narrow ridge of bone that keeps shrinking once the teeth are gone, and there’s very little for them to grip. That’s where a few implants can change everything, by giving the denture something to snap onto. More on dentures, and why some never fit well.
When dentures are the right answer
Sometimes there’s no other option. It can be your health, your budget, or a combination of the two. When that’s the case, a well-made denture is a real solution, not a failure, and most of the full dentures we make are digitally captured and milled.
Teeth that need to come out are usually removed by a surgeon we work with. We plan the case and make the denture, so it’s one plan even when it’s two offices.
Where to start
A comprehensive exam tells you which of these are realistic for your mouth, your bone and your budget, before anyone recommends anything. Call 702-734-0776 or tell us what’s going on.
General education, and not a substitute for an exam.