When many people lose most of their teeth, they have to use removable dentures. The advantages and disadvantages of removable dentures will be discussed in this article.
Teeth and the jaw apparatus in general are the most important part of the human body that provides food to the body. You can tell how healthy a person is by the state of their teeth, you can even guess their age.
Sooner or later the teeth due to natural wear and tear deteriorate, become weak, are more often exposed to dental caries, and therefore more often require treatment and prosthetics. Of course, the prospect of getting dentures sounds scary to many people (especially women), but sometimes the installation of removable dentures is simply necessary.
When Are Removable Dentures Needed?
The main reason to get removable dentures is because you have lost your own chewing teeth. In addition to the unsightly appearance, the resulting cavities threaten the following problems:
- Displacement of the teeth;
- Dysfunction of some internal organs due to poor quality chewing;
- Stomach overload due to the need to digest large pieces of food;
- Disruption of production of the hormone parotin, which is involved in calcium metabolism (resulting in problems with the liver, stomach and healthy teeth).
Maybe We Should Put Implants Right Away
In the vast majority of cases, if you don’t delay in going to the dentist of course, you can get quality ceramic dentures. They will be with you at all times on par with your native teeth. However, there are situations where removable teeth are the only possible solution to the problem.
These include:
- Loss of all teeth;
- Loss of a small row of several teeth, including chewing teeth;
- Partial destruction of teeth in the dental arch, their deformation (when it is difficult or almost impossible to use the native tooth as a support for the crown);
- Loss of masticatory teeth or their poor stability;
- Loss of a large number of teeth in a row or obvious defects in the tooth row (the installation of capital dentures is fraught with increased pressure on the remaining teeth);
- Unwillingness to sacrifice healthy teeth to support a permanent denture.
Types of Removable Dentures
Despite the seemingly archaic nature of removable dentures, modern medicine has evolved in this direction as well. Today there are many different designs for full or partial coverage of the jaw that make life much easier for their wearers.
There are 3 main groups of dentures:
Plastic Full Removable Dentures
Talking about full removable dentures is actually not that common. Usually these are very neglected cases, when almost all of the native teeth are lost.
The main material for the production of such “accessories” is acrylic plastic. The teeth are obtained by injection molding, hot or cold curing. Individually such prostheses are rarely produced. At the appointment, the doctor usually suggests several models that differ from each other in size, color and style.
Partial Removable Dentures
Partial dentures are inserted when the jaw is still filled with the original teeth. Sometimes only one tooth (mostly masticatory) needs to be fixed, but even in this case removable dentures can be fitted. This group is also divided into subgroups. Let us explain them further.
The first is the lamellar plastic prostheses. They replace an entire group of teeth. The small complex on the sides is equipped with steel clammers, special metal hooks that cling to healthy teeth or fixed dentures.
The structure itself is placed directly on the gum. The clasp is anchored firmly around the tooth, eliminating denture mobility. The metal arch is placed at the base of the tooth, so it is almost always hidden by the lip and invisible to the naked eye.
If the presence of metal springs is not to the patient’s liking, one can choose a denture with hidden attachments – attachments. The invisible attachment clasp consists of two parts. One of the elements of the attachment is hidden inside the artificial tooth, the other is attached to the crown or the roots of the tooth (if any are left). However, this type of attachment of plastic teeth is not suitable in all cases. You need a consultation with your dentist beforehand.
The second group includes partial dentures. They serve as a temporary alternative to the lost teeth. They replace one or more extracted teeth while an implant is being made or a suitable removable denture is being purchased.
Dentures are the third group of removable dentures and are the most reliable “replacements” for natural teeth. They not only mask the void, but also help keep the remaining teeth intact. Due to the presence of a metal frame, the denture does not press on the gum, distributing the load between the remaining teeth and the surface of the gum evenly. The partial denture is strictly custom-made, so it can be used for moving teeth and periodontal disease.
Hypoallergenic alloys are used in the construction of partial dentures. Attachments can be of any type (clasps or attachments), and here latent locks are not burdened with contraindications. Crowns are used to protect the supporting teeth.
Conditional Dentures
Conditional dentures are used after the loss of a single tooth. This is usually of the chewing type. The material used can be either plastic or ceramic. Metal springs on the sides exactly follow the contours of the supporting teeth, so they do not cause discomfort. Sometimes the denture is glued to the jaw.
This type of restoration is called a provisional denture because the patient does not work with it. The only time the dentist’s office removes the denture is to renew the adhesive. If the tooth is strong, it can be left untouched.
So What, Now the Teeth Are in the Glass?
Despite the rapid improvement of technology in the production of medical prostheses, including dentures, people are still alive with fears of artificial removable teeth. The phrase “removable dentures” seems to have become conflated with the phrase “putting teeth in a glass.
There is no point in denying that in the past, putting dentures in a glass of water at night was the norm and an objective necessity. Earlier generations of dentures were made of natural rubber, which oxidized and dried out in the air, and therefore regularly needed to be moistened. Otherwise, the denture would quickly crack and lose its elasticity.
With the advent of plastics in dentistry, living with removable dentures has become much easier. The plastic material does not lose its properties when in contact with air, and therefore does not need to be soaked. It is sufficient to rinse it periodically from food debris.
