Dentures – Lawrenceville, GA
Restore Your Compromised Smile with the Utmost Ease
If you’re going through life with missing teeth, you’re putting yourself at a pretty big disadvantage. More than likely, your ability to eat has been negatively impacted and your speaking capabilities have been diminished; however, your self-esteem has probably plummeted too, as a result of the gaps in your grin. Luckily, tooth loss is by no means a permanent problem – restorative solutions like dentures exist for these very situations! Continue reading to learn a little more about dentures and how our team here in Lawrenceville can use them to masterfully rebuild your smile and boost your quality of life.
Why Choose Transforming Smiles for Dentures?
- Insurance Accepted and Financing Options Available
- Skilled Dentist with Decades of Experience
- Personalized Treatment Plans for All Patients
Who Is a Good Candidate for Dentures?
For the most part, patients who are missing anywhere from a few teeth to one or both arches tend to be excellent candidates for dentures. However, you’ll first still need to come in for a consultation with Dr. Carter and our team. During this appointment, we can carefully inspect your mouth, note the severity of your tooth loss, discuss your smile goals with you, and ultimately determine which type of denture best suits your needs. In some cases, a patient might need to undergo preliminary treatment before they can receive dentures; one common example of this is periodontal therapy. To put it simply, your dentures need to be placed in a healthy environment in order to look natural and function normally!
Types of Dentures
Tooth loss is different for everyone, meaning that dentures need to be customizable based on how many teeth they’re replacing and where those teeth are located, among other factors. Thanks to advancements in dental technology, there are now various types of dentures that can meet all of these specific needs. Here’s a closer look:
Partial Dentures
Partials are suitable for patients missing some of their teeth, rather than an entire arch. They’re created from a gum-colored acrylic base and replacement teeth (pontics) supported by metal pieces that clip directly into the mouth. They fit around the existing teeth and are typically removable for ease of cleaning.
Full Dentures
For patients missing one or both arches of teeth, full dentures are usually the go-to solution. Like partials, they also utilize discreet, gum-colored bases combined with lifelike prosthetic teeth. However, they’re anchored a little differently. They rely on adhesives, suction, and precise muscle control to remain functional and stable.
Implant Dentures
Implant dentures combine the effectiveness of dentures with the ingenuity of dental implants. These dentures can replace any number of missing teeth, no matter where they’re located in the mouth, thanks to implant posts. Of course, this also means that patients enjoy all of the advantages that dental implants have to offer, including reduced bone resorption, unwavering stability, and bolstered oral health.
How Dentures Are Made
Dentures are highly customizable, meaning that the restorations we design here at our office are crafted with your specific smile and tooth loss in mind. That said, you may have questions about what the overall process looks like. Understanding how dentures are made and which materials are used will only help you to further appreciate your brand-new smile! Keep reading below to learn a little more about how we achieve beautiful, comfortable, and functional final results.
What Are Dentures Made Of?
Dentures are made of two different parts, the base and the replacement teeth. Here’s a closer look at each:
- Denture Base – This is the foundational structure that supports your replacement teeth inside the mouth, and it can be made from a variety of different materials, including acrylic, nylon, or resin. Full dentures tend to be made from acrylic since it mimics your gums, while partials often incorporate metal or nylon clips with acrylic to help secure them.
- Replacement Teeth – The replacement teeth are attached to the denture base and are made from lifelike materials in order to retain a natural appearance. Porcelain tends to be a popular choice, as does composite resin, due to their beauty coupled with durability.
The Denture Creation Process
The process of creating dentures takes multiple steps, each with an important purpose that ensures your restoration will serve you well. First, our team will take impressions of your upper and lower gums, to create a model of your mouth. This model has a very important job; it is the basis for the design of your final denture!
This model is sent to a dental laboratory, where skilled technicians will use it to carefully create a wax replica of your gumline that’s then placed under a special device called an articulator, which attaches the teeth to the wax. A round of adjustments is made, and the wax dentures are then placed in plaster to hold their shape before the wax portions are melted away, leaving room for the acrylic to replace them. The plaster is then carefully removed, and any excess acrylic is cut away before the final product is polished to perfection and sent back to be fitted to your mouth!
All-on-4 dentures are another type of restoration that we offer here at our office – often referred to as “Teeth-in-a-Day,” this solution combines dentures with four strategically-placed dental implants and normally allows a patient to receive their new teeth on the same day that their dental implants are placed. Rather than resting on top of the gums, All-on-4 dentures are permanently attached to dental implant posts which serve as replacement tooth roots.
Adjusting to Your New Dentures
You might feel some slight discomfort when you first begin wearing your new dentures – however, this is a natural part of the process that every patient must endure, and it is usually only short-lived. With a little bit of time, patience, and practice, you’ll adjust to wearing your new dentures, and often within a month or so, they’ll feel very similar to your original teeth. During your adjustment period, you should stick to eating softer foods while also regularly exercising your facial muscles. It also helps to have a trusted friend or family member you can practice speaking with. If you’re still dealing with persistent discomfort and struggling to adjust to your dentures, don’t hesitate to contact us so we can help!
The Benefits of Dentures
Dentures don’t just replace your teeth – they vastly improve your overall quality of life! These tried-and-true restorations have so many advantages to offer, and if you’ve been without your teeth for a while, you’ll certainly be impressed when you experience some of these life-changing benefits for yourself. Here’s a closer look at some of the many perks that dentures come with:
Psychological Benefits
Losing any number of teeth can have a major impact on your self-esteem and outlook on life. In fact, people with tooth loss often experience increased social anxiety, sadness, and even depression. However, if you restore your smile with dentures, you won’t even hesitate to smile with confidence in social situations. This self-esteem boost is priceless!
Clearer Enunciation
It becomes challenging to speak clearly when you have missing teeth; you might be unable to pronounce certain words or sounds, and this can even lead to you being unable to contribute to conversations, both in professional settings and with close friends and family. Since dentures can restore every one of your missing teeth, once you’ve adjusted to wearing them, you’ll be able to converse with ease once more.
Improves Nutrition
It goes without saying that tooth loss impacts your ability to eat – every tooth in your mouth plays a role in biting and chewing food, so missing certain teeth will cause you to miss out on enjoying certain delicacies. Dentures aren’t just for show – these replacement teeth give you back the ability to bite and chew food, expanding your diet and allowing you to enjoy all of your favorite, hearty options.
Preserves Oral Health
Did you know that having missing teeth impacts your oral health, and also increases the likelihood of more teeth falling out? When teeth are lost, nearby ones will begin shifting out of place towards the gap that was left, and they might even fall out themselves after some time. Likewise, having missing teeth means you’re placing more strain and wear on your remaining ones. Since dentures fill out the gaps in your grin, you won’t have to worry about losing more pearly whites. They also are designed to withstand more of the pressure of chewing, preventing further wear and tear on your other teeth.
Expands Opportunities
Most people agree that someone’s smile is the first feature they notice upon meeting them for the first time – so when it comes to making first impressions in the professional world, your smile is quite an important asset. Dentures are incredibly lifelike and replace all of your missing teeth, meaning you’ll be able to navigate things like job interviews, social gatherings, and even first dates with a confident and complete smile. In fact, some studies even associated a lower probability of being employed with poor oral health – meaning if you’d like to advance your career or change things up, you shouldn’t wait to replace your missing teeth!