Replacing Several Missing Teeth With Dental Implants
Traditionally, several missing teeth would have been replaced with a removable partial, full denture or full bridge.
Dentures have to be taken out and soaked at night. They can also look unnatural and rub painfully. Dentures and partials make it difficult or impossible to eat certain foods.
Dental implants can now be used to anchor partial and full dentures. This prevents the slipping, irritation, and pain associated with “floating” partials and dentures. It also prevents the tedious removal of dentures for overnight soaking and cleaning. Dental implants also eliminate the need for dental adhesives. This allows you to enjoy eating the foods you previously avoided. With dental implants, your partials or dentures are firmly anchored to the jawbone, causing them to feel much more like natural teeth.
Natural tooth roots and dental implants are fixed firmly in your jawbone. When you chew, these tooth roots and posts stimulate the jawbone and prevent it from shrinking. You may have seen a person who looked prematurely old because their jawbone had shrunk after wearing floating dentures. Dental implants help to preserve the jawbone and appearance.
Implant Overdentures
Regular dentures rest on the gums, which can sometimes result in problems if the dentures don’t stay securely in place while talking or eating. These problems can be avoided by using an implant-supported denture or dentures over implants system.
This treatment includes overdentures that attach to implant posts and can be designed to be bar-retained (a thin metal bar designed to follow the shape of the jaw) or ball-retained (ball-shaped attachments that fit into sockets). The dentures should be removed daily for cleaning, and you shouldn’t sleep with the dentures in place at night.