Dental implants with dentures
If if you have missing teeth then you really only have four options:
- Do nothing and live with the space.
- Wear a denture.
- Have a dental bridge.
- Opt for dental implants.
Option one is often not the right thing to do as the adjacent teeth have a tendency to drift and fall into the gap, overtime this can affect your bite and mean that replacing a tooth in the long run is actually more difficult.
Option two, wearing a denture. Depending on how many teeth you have missing this is a more viable alternative, however many people dislike the idea of having to wear a removable denture. Dentures, whilst often excellent, can also sometimes feel loose which means that eating some foods is more difficult.
Option three of having a dental bridge is also an excellent treatment alternative. However it means cutting down the teeth either side of the gap to provide a support for the bridge. In some cases this is not possible and we can suspend a false teeth in the gap, however this does nothing to support the bone. When a tooth is extracted the bone will fall into the gap and shrink over a period of time, this often means that even with eight dental bridge the bone underneath the new false to shrinks away and can end up leaving a gap over time.
The option of having a dental implant, therefore fulfils this last requirement and prevents the bone from collapsing into the gap where the tooth was, as this gap is now replaced with a dental implant.
If you already have dentures and find that the dentures loose and wobbly then we can often stabilise the dentures with dental implants in a number of ways.
How to stabilise a denture with dental implants.
One option is to completely replace the denture with a fixed bridge. This Fixed bridge can be suspended on as little as for dental implants, and is often known as All-on-4 and is where we place 4 or more dental implants and then use these to hold in place a full set of permanent teeth. These are often made of either high-strength dental ceramic or a high-strength acrylic or composite hybrid.
Another alternative is to work with your existing denture, or have a new one made if you wish, and place fewer implants which have a stud on top. This stud it can be used to stabilise the denture and hold it securely in place.
This final alternative often works out at one of the most affordable and best solutions, it can often be done with the least amount of dental surgery and with fewer dental implants keeping the cost lower.
If you have a loose wobbly denture then this may be the perfect solution to help you eat, smile, chew and laugh again with confidence.