If you have been unlucky enough to lose a tooth , or you have never developed certain teeth, what are your options?
Broadly speaking there are 3 types of denture available to patients
These are the dentures we favour at the practice. If designed well they are comfortable, almost invisible and cause no damage to surrounding structures. (other teeth and gums). Cobalt chrome dentures clasp around surrounding teeth making them very secure.You can click on our About page and ready "what our patients say". Patients generally are surprised and delighted with how comfortable and confident they feel.This video gives you an idea how Cobalt Chrome dentures work, in the UK we do not prepare teeth before placing Cobalt Chrome dentures. Sometimes we will replace older fillings or crowns to improve stability prior to making your new Cobalt Chrome Denture.
These plastic dentures are normally reserved for patients with very few or no remaining teeth. They rely on the gums for support. They can look very convincing and once a patient adapts to them they can provide many years of function. With time,however, they can become loose and uncomfortable. Patients sometimes use denture fixative to secure them. Increasingly, at the practice, we are able to use implants to secure acrylic dentures.
These are relatively new to dentistry and provide interesting options. They are almost entirely invisible and can be very comfortable. They have not been widely used for a long time so it is hard to gauge how successful they are in the long term. They are also hard to add to in the future, unlike Cobalt Chrome and acrylic dentures. In this helpful video, flexible dentures are compared to Cobalt Chrome Dentures.
There are 2 types of bridges available to patients with gaps to fill.
This is a crown retained bridge. This means the gap is filled by a false porcelain tooth anchored to the teeth around the gap using a crown. This is a very strong and rigid system and will last a long time if designed well and kept very clean by the patient. These types of bridges are indicated if the teeth around the gap are heavily restored and would benefit from being crowned.
These bridges use a wing rather than a crown to hold the false tooth in the gap. Normally the wing is made from 0.7mm metal but can be made from more modern materials such as Zirconia. They require far less handpiece preparation of the neighbouring teeth and in some case no preparation at all.
In many ways implants are the definitive solutions to replacing missing teeth. If the patient is a suitable candidate an implant will provide many years are trouble free function. A titanium implant is integrated into the patients bone and a crown is fixed to the top of the implant, thereby simulating the lost tooth. multiple gaps can also be filled using this method. We use the ace tricam and internal hex systems at the Limes Dental Practice.
