What is a denture?
A denture is an appliance which is worn to replace lost or missing teeth. The base of a denture is called a plate and can be made of either acrylic (plastic) or metal. The teeth are normally made of acrylic and can be made to match your natural teeth. A complete or full denture is one which replaces all of the natural teeth in either the upper or lower jaws. A partial denture fills in the spaces created by lost or missing teeth and is attached to your natural teeth with metal clasps or devices called precision attachments.
A denture is a removable replacement for missing teeth and adjacent tissues. It is made of acrylic resin, sometimes in combination with various metals. Complete dentures replace all the teeth, while a partial denture fills in the spaces created by missing teeth and prevents other teeth from changing position. Complete dentures are either “conventional” or “immediate.” A conventional denture is placed in the mouth about a month after all the teeth are removed to allow for proper healing, whereas an immediate denture is placed as soon as the teeth are removed. The drawback behind an immediate denture is that it may require more adjustments after the healing has taken place.
A denture is needed when you are missing all of your teeth. It is removable and is recommended not to sleep in them due to tissues needing rest from forces applied while chewing. The upper denture can stay in place quite well depending on the amount of bony ridge left over upon tooth extraction or removal. You see, our bone in our jaws has one purpose and that is to hold teeth, once all the teeth are removed the bone starts to atrophy. This atrophy over time is why dentures need to be relined and adjusted on a regular basis. Lower dentures move around quite frequently due to the muscles of the tongue and cheek that have their attachments along where the borders of the dentures sit. A denture depends on suction to hold in and can be aided by attaching them to dental implants. By the addition of dental implants, dentures are now very predictable and there is no longer and reason why they should come out and be limited by certain foods.
