July 1, 2013
Many people feel frustrated that their dentures constantly get bigger over time.
The have a tooth which need removing and have a denture made, a year or so later another tooth breaks and their denture gets bigger. There are a number of reasons which may be causing this.
Bite forces play a big part. If you break a tooth and have it replaced with a denture, your new tooth does NOT give the same support as your natural teeth do. What this means is that you have the same force distributed over fewer teeth often causing further fractures over time. Many people don’t realise that overloading your natural teeth like this can cause this kind of problem
Gum disease can also be devastating to your natural teeth. Gum disease eats away at the bone which supports your teeth and effectively increases the forces. What do you think would happen to a sky scraper if you got rid of its foundations?
Many people want to know what the options are. Well, whenever you have a missing tooth there are only one of four options;
Believe it or not, some people are happy to keep a space no matter where the teeth are in their mouth. This can cause problems because of the bite force increase on your remaining teeth
The next option is to consider dentures. Dentures have been around for centuries and are an outdated technique but still have their place. They do not restore full function and the risk of having problems in one form or another is in the region of 64%, thats huge!
The next option is to consider a bridge. Bridges can restore much more chewing power than dentures but do require the adjacent teeth to be prepared so they can support them. The downside is simple, let’s say you have a missing tooth and prepare the next teeth to have a bridge fitted, on average those bridges last 7-10 years and what was originally a 1 tooth problem becomes a 3 tooth problem.
The final solution and considered to be the best way we currently have to replace missing teeth is to consider dental implants. Dental implants restore function and do very little damage to adjacent teeth AND they hold your existing bone to prevent further bone loss unlike any of the other methods we have
If you are fed up of your dentures and would like to chat to us, feel free to call us on 01302 325678 and arrange your free appointment with our treatment coordinator
