Dentures and Partial Dentures Boerne, TX Dentures and Partial Dentures
Dentures are made when all of the teeth are missing. They are made of a type of plastic that is colored to replicate the teeth and gums. Dentures are primarily held in place by the degree of suction that the individual patients mouth allows. In many cases, there may be a less than ideal shape of the jaws which does not allow adequate suction to hold the denture in place.
In these instances, we recommend dental implants to hold the denture in place. This can be done in many cases with an already existing denture with minimal modifications to the denture.
There is also another option that offers even more natural function. This is a complete implant supported denture or bridge that replaces all the missing teeth. This is usually fixed in place and does not come out. More implants are used so that the plastic edges of traditional dentures are not needed for suction, further increasing comfort.
When several teeth are still present, a partial denture is one option to replace the missing teeth. The partial denture is made basically the same way as the complete denture, except that some of the teeth that the partial denture will touch have very small notches prepared to hold the partial as firmly in place as possible. Bridges or implants would be other possible alternatives to a partial denture.