Dentures & Implants
Dentures
Dentures are removable appliances used to replace missing teeth. They are made with either acrylic (plastic) or cobalt chrome (metal) on the base to which false teeth are added. They help with speech, chewing, add support to your lips and chin as well as improving the appearance of your smile.
There are two types of dentures –
- Partial denture - which replaces one tooth or several teeth.
- Full denture - which replaces the whole set of teeth, on the upper or lower.
Dentures are ideally kept in place by using clasps, which anchor around neighboring teeth or by the dentures’ natural suction. If there isn’t much retention for a denture (due to bone loss as we get older or the absence of teeth to clasp the denture to) a denture fixative or glue is recommended to aid in keeping the denture in place.
All dentures are designed by the dentist or our dental technician to suit each patient’s individual needs.
Implants
Dental implants can be used to replace a missing tooth or teeth. An implant is a titanium ‘root or roots' which is placed into the jawbone. Most patient report little discomfort form this procedure and indeed they have found it to be less traumatic than a dental extraction.
Once integrated with your bone, the implant or implants can be used to support a single tooth crown or a bridge. Dental implants may also be used to support and retain partial and full dentures.
Implants have been used successfully for over thirty years, and have a high success rate if you are medically fit and healthy and maintain excellent oral hygiene. Dental implant treatment does represent a greater investment than conventional treatment; however, the benefits of implant therapy for most patients outweigh the additional cost involved.
In our implant cases we liaise with our local specialist periodontal team and together with them we can tailor an implant treatment plan. The periodontitis’ are extremely experienced in implant placement, they place the implants and we restore the implant after it has integrated with the bone. Implants need a good level of oral hygiene to be routinely checked to ensure their longevity.
