Two things up front, because together they’ll tell you whether we’re the right office for what you need.
We make full dentures, and most of ours are digitally captured and milled. We also make acrylic flippers. What we make very few of now are cast metal partial dentures. That’s not because we can’t. It’s because once most people see their options side by side, they’d rather have implants.
The second thing is about order. We don’t do extractions here, and we don’t place implants. Those go to specialists we work with, and we handle the teeth that go on top. So if your case needs teeth taken out first, you’ll be dealing with two offices and one plan, and getting that plan right is most of the job.
What we make
| What it is | Where we stand | |
|---|---|---|
| Full denture | Replaces all the teeth in an arch. Rests on the ridge of the jaw, and on the palate for an upper | Yes, and most of ours are digitally captured and milled |
| Acrylic flipper | A thin acrylic partial that carries one tooth or a few. Usually a temporary appliance | Yes. Quick and inexpensive, but not made for heavy chewing |
| Implant-retained overdenture | A removable denture that snaps onto implants instead of resting on the gums | Yes, the denture part. A surgeon places the implants |
| Cast metal partial | A metal framework that clasps onto the teeth you still have | We make few of these now, for the reasons below |
| Fixed full-arch bridge | Screwed onto implants, and doesn’t come out | Not really a denture. It has its own page |
Why we make fewer metal partials than we used to
A cast partial denture is a legitimate appliance, and there’s nothing wrong with how it’s engineered. We don’t make many anymore because of what it asks of the teeth you have left, not because it stopped working.
A partial clasps onto your remaining teeth and uses them as anchors. Those teeth end up taking forces from directions they weren’t shaped for. Plaque collects where the metal touches them. And the partial goes in and out against them several times a day, for years. That’s a fair trade when there’s no better option. It’s a poor one when there is.
Most people who come in expecting a partial, and who can have implants, choose implants once they understand what each one will cost them over twenty years. That’s the whole reason we make fewer partials. The partial didn’t get worse. The alternative got better.
We’ll still make one when it’s the right answer, and sometimes it is: when there isn’t enough bone, when your health history rules out surgery, when the budget decides it, or when you just don’t want an implant. Those are all real reasons, and nobody here will try to talk you out of them. It’s worth reading how the options compare first.
Digitally captured and milled: what that really changes
Most of our full dentures start with a scan instead of a tray of impression material. They’re designed on a screen, then milled out of a solid puck of pre-cured acrylic, instead of being packed and cured in a flask.
Here’s what that actually gets you, which isn’t quite what the ads usually say.
It isn’t clearly cheaper, and it doesn’t reliably mean fewer appointments. A 2026 systematic review pooled five studies and 184 patients. It found no statistically significant difference between digital and conventional dentures in lab cost, clinical cost, total cost, or number of visits. What did make a significant difference was the experience of the person making them.
Muehlemann E, Pachiou A, Saenz-Ravello G, Jung RE, Strauss FJ, Liguori MG. Cost-efficiency of digital versus conventional workflow for removable complete dentures: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Prosthodont. 2026;35(3):243-251. The authors concluded the current evidence isn’t enough to show a clear cost advantage either way.
It does hold up on the things that matter, with one catch. A 2024 systematic review and meta-analysis of 16 studies compared digital and conventional dentures. Milled dentures showed no significant difference from conventional ones in how well they stayed in, and no significant difference in patient satisfaction. Printed dentures were a different story: conventional dentures actually stayed in better.
Avelino MEL, Costa RTF, Vila-Nova TEL, Vasconcelos BCDE, Pellizzer EP, Moraes SLD. Clinical performance and patient-related outcome measures of digitally fabricated complete dentures: a systematic review and meta-analysis. J Prosthet Dent. 2024;132(4):748.e1-748.e10.
Milled and printed aren’t the same thing, and the research showed the difference. Both get called digital dentures. If someone quotes you one, it’s fair to ask which kind they mean.
So the reason to do it this way isn’t that the denture turns out better than a well-made conventional one. It’s that it turns out just as good, from a process we can repeat.
And one advantage doesn’t need a study at all: the design is saved as a file. A conventional denture exists once. If you lose it, sit on it, or leave it in a hotel room, you start over with new impressions. A milled denture can be remade from the saved design. That also makes a spare a reasonable thing to have, instead of a whole second round of treatment.
About flippers
A flipper is a thin acrylic plate with one tooth or a few on it. It stays in by resting against the roof of your mouth or your gums. Most people end up with one in a hurry, after losing a front tooth or while something longer-term is being made.
It does one job well. It keeps you looking normal, quickly and for not much money, while you decide what to do or while an implant heals. That’s worth having, and we’re happy to make them.
What it isn’t is something to chew with. It’s thin acrylic, and it’ll break if you treat it like a real tooth. Most people eat carefully with one in, or take it out to eat. It’s also meant to be temporary, so if you’ve been wearing one for three years, bring it up with us instead of just living with it.
Why some dentures never fit well
This explains most of the bad reputation dentures have, and usually it isn’t the denture’s fault.
A lower denture especially has very little to hold on to. It sits on a ridge of bone, and that ridge keeps shrinking year after year once the teeth are gone, because nothing is putting load on it anymore. A denture made for the ridge you had five years ago is sitting on a different ridge today. Upper dentures do better, because the palate gives them a wide surface to seal against.
That’s why two people can get equally well-made dentures and have completely different experiences, and why a new denture isn’t always the fix for a loose one. Sometimes the foundation has changed, and the fix is to change the foundation.
When implants change things
For a lower denture that won’t stay put, a small number of implants changes the problem completely. The denture snaps onto them instead of floating on your gums, and eating and talking stop being a struggle.
There’s a step beyond that. An implant-retained overdenture still comes out for cleaning. A full-arch implant bridge is screwed in and stays in. That’s what most people mean when they say All-on-4. It asks more of your bone and your budget, and it’s a different decision from a denture, not just a better version of one.
Where we fit in that work. The surgeon does the imaging, works out where implants can go, and does the surgery. We plan the case with them from the tooth side, and we make, fit and look after what goes on top. Dr. Sandquist used to place implants himself, so he knows where they need to be for the teeth that go on them, but he doesn’t place them now.
One patient wore a removable partial denture for years after a car accident cost him the teeth and bone on one side of his jaw. Once bone graft surgery rebuilt what was lost, implants finally gave him something permanent, and that partial went in the trash.
See how we solved G.B.’s case →
What to ask at your first visit
Whether you come in with an old denture, a new gap, or a recommendation from another office, the exam covers the same things: what teeth are left, what shape they’re in, what the bone underneath looks like, and how your bite comes together.
Four questions to ask whoever is making your denture, here or anywhere else:
- If it’s digital, is it milled or printed? The research found a difference.
- Will my design be saved? If so, ask what it takes to have it remade.
- What is this appliance supposed to do, and for how long? A temporary one and a long-term one are different things to pay for.
- If it clasps onto my teeth, what will that do to them? That one question covers the whole partial denture debate.
Call 702-734-0776 or tell us what’s going on.
Extractions, implant placement and oral surgery are referred to specialists. Diagnosis, planning and all restorative work are done here. The research comparing digital and conventional complete dentures is limited, and the reviews cited say so themselves. This is general information, not a substitute for an exam.