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FAQ on Implants - Dentures & Bridges How come my dentures need to be relined with increasing frequency? With my top and bottom dentures, can I have implants in the lower and keep my top denture? How many implants would I need to replace my worn out annoying full denture in one jaw?
How come my dentures need to be relined with increasing frequency?
Through a microscope, with every bite, it must look like a Tsumini wave flooding the coastline. Bone is fickle: if it does not like the harsh conditions, its just removes itself, resulting in spongy unsupported inflamed red cauliflower infected raw overworked tissue. Time is critical, the longer you delay, the less bone and the greater the chance of requiring a bone graft, or you could be too late so that the bone shrinks from 1 inch height to maybe the thickness of a pencil! As the denture sinks like a house into quicksand, the pinching can be exquisitely painful and difficult to locate and eliminate. Lots of visits and lots of anger and frustration. Most sufferers with dentures would love to put them into a metal vice and crush them. Now, for the first time in your family’s tree, you are the fortunate one with a valid, low maintenance alternative. "Always travel first class, if you don’t, your heirs will" If you would like implants to chew with, but your spouse is opposed to the expenditure, watch them eat and notice that your pain and disability does not affect their chewing of that tasty T bone steak one little bit! Research is showing that a jaw with even just 2 implants will increase in density, height and strength right along its length, not just about the implants. It is as if the bone knows that, at last, it has been given a useful task. Bridges were once the only legitimate alternative to dentures, but now, if an implant site is suitable, to place a bridge on 2 sound teeth is not only stupid but perhaps unethical. Financially there is not much difference; often it is actually cheaper for an insured patient to opt for implants. Dentally, a bridge could fail due to the weakened supporting teeth fracturing, decay around the supporting teeth or toothache requiring root canal therapy. Sometimes apparently healthy virgin teeth just "drop dead". The independent nature of implants is most attractive: the 2 adjacent teeth remain unchanged and if there are problems, the 3 units are remote and unlinked to each other. Your 3 tooth bridge could fail and then you might need 3 implants so, a bridge is more a case of "1 step forward, 3 back"! In summary, a bridge is the preferred alternative when an implant CANNOT be placed …. And that is uncommon today with our minor bone transplanting techniques which can re-sculpture the top, the side or the base, whichever is eroded by time and indecision. Definitely not! Natural teeth like to move up and down in their natural sling of fibre which run from the tooth into the bone. The tooth needs to move up and down like a piston, cushioning the bone and itself. An implant is rigid, part of the bone, so it is dangerous to tie a moving tooth to a rigid implant next door. If this biological law is broken by joining a tooth to a neighbouring implant, the natural tooth slowly submerges into the bone, breaking the bond between the tooth and the rigid bridge. With separation decay can rapidly invade the opening space and presto, you need an extraction and another implant. Good for me, bad for you. Implant supported replacement structures must not shelter natural teeth from the biting forces nor should implants inhibit the necessary vertical movement of a natural tooth happy in its ‘inner-spring bed’. That depends on the owner! Intelligent dietary habits, adherence to dentist advice (don’t make your own dental rulebook) and the avoidance of partial dentures will see that all your little teeth to Heaven! Blissfully unaware habit such as sucking sugar peppermints to freshen the breath, chocolate grazing while watching evening TV, sipping carbonated diet soft drinks, crunching bones or ice cubes, sucking Vitamin C lozenges, regular hot lemon drinks, eating the lemon from the black tea are dangerous habits most indulgers practice without any informed comprehension of the dental consequences. The other risk is to assume ‘no trouble with my teeth’ equals no need for periodic dental examinations. Teeth are for life. Implants avoid partial dentures, which change the environment around the supporting teeth and gums. A toxic partial denture is a miniature timebomb, ticking away as it harbors anaerobic bacteria in the dark oxygen deprived areas. Yuck. The hygienic geography around an implant compared to a partial denture is akin to the cleanliness of the back of your hand contrasted against the difficulty of maintaining your toes in a pair of marathon joggers – hot, moist, lots of up and down movement and not much circulation of fresh air. Some people are prone to gum problems, which are self-propagating, that is, if one area is infected, the adjacent teeth can be altered. The removal of a tooth with an untreatable chronic infection of the gum is often prudent early so to preserve that already dissolving bone and to preserve the environment around the other as yet undamaged teeth. Heroically hanging on to a doomed tooth can result in the gums receding and as a result you would soon require bone augmentation (additional time, cost and complexity) plus the risk of the spread of the bacteria into the gap around the happy teeth. No, you are the very person who needs implants either a minimum number or a maximum.
Should you want a more tooth like result rather than a denture modification, more implants can be placed, either 6 or 8 in either jaw, so eliminating the pink plastic sides and allowing teeth replicas to emerge from the gum, just as your own teeth would have been positioned and styled. Denture adhesive use is a sign that either a denture is due for reline or that the terminal damage to the bone shape is in the final chapter. Adhesives = Implant Action. Signs of the terminal stage of bone destruction by a denture are:
Why would anybody elect to have dentures? If you have even one of these problems, then implants will help you avoid the other vexing problems, which are just queued up waiting to happen. Most decisions to ‘clear the forest’ are made mistakenly in the belief that "If I have all my teeth out, then I won’t have to come here again!" Alas, those very people are the ones who, in the future, are the dental waiting room wall flowers, plagued by unresolvable difficulties, terrorizing every dentist in the district with their bag of failed dentures and these are the very folk who are emotionally scared from the disappointment of searching for, what is, in reality, a fluke of fit. Adhesives require renewal especially after some foods, somewhat embarrassing when it has to be renewed in a restaurant toilet. Coughing, laughing and sneezing are other spontaneous moments of potential theatre. Often times, the unstable wearer (sic) laughs unconsciously with their hand in front of their mouth, or just grimaces rather than risk their denture catapulting into their host’s cleavage. Once their food arrives, 1 in 3-denture wearers will have ordered soft food. Sad and unnecessary. Odour from a denture is from the porous plastic, which like a dishwashing cloth absorbs food and bacteria. Implants with ceramic surfaced crowns are impervious and, as there is no pink plastic, sweeter to the nose. With my top and bottom dentures, can I have implants in the lower and keep my top denture? Fantastic start! Full lower dentures are the most troublesome and risky mode of treatment in all dental practices. Most people start dealing with their horrid lower, feeling that the upper is ok, yet, once the lower is stable, they find themselves back in a year or two, wanting to experience the improvement for the upper plus the added benefit of having an exposed palate, open to the marauding aromas and juices from their favorite delicacies. The image of a pig with a hot potato in its mouth is akin to the task of a person trying to control the movement of a lower denture by the inhibition of the normal range of muscle movement in their lips and cheeks. Small wonder their lips look thin and in need of a good workout at a gym! A lower denture clicked down Allows a true and uninhibited S M I L E All you need is an oral examination by an implant surgical dentist and maybe an X-ray to decide if you would be a suitable candidate for an implant solution. How many implants would I need to replace my worn out annoying full denture in one jaw? Given that 1 out of 10 implants will be not firm enough, we would usually try to put in an extra one or two above the minimum so that if one was lost, you would still have the minimum. The denture can be supported with just 2 smaller implants, so we would place 2. We could also place 3 wider implants for "same day teeth". If you wanted to streamline the denture into "teeth", 6-8 would be placed. Recent success with wider 5-mm implants is close to the % success for the 3.75 system so with one of the wide ones at the back on each side, a well-supported "bridge" could be designed supported at the back and near the eyetooth position. The number can be decided by some simple X-rays or if the count is difficult, a CT scan can give an extremely accurate measurement of the implant’s intended site in relation to everything else in the area. Yes, in fact, if you don’t hold the line, the rest of your life will be exactly that: breaking, refilling, tooth ache, more root canal fillings, crowns too late, emergency surgical extractions lasting 1.5 hours and so …..on and on and on! "Hold the line, this is your Alamo", "No its too expensive", "Rip it out mate", "Dear? Pass me my denture glass?" The dental literature is quite clear and unambiguous: root filled teeth, other than front teeth should all be crowned, firstly, because of the greater risk of fracture due to loss of their source of internal moisture - the dry tooth looses elasticity, secondly, because of the necessary removal of the internal structure to gain access to the dental pulp and thirdly because basically teeth that ache are teeth that have been damaged and weakened by a decay/refill/decay sequence over many years. Most dentists inform patients of that preventative step, crowning a tooth being like placing a helmet upon the tooth or the placing of a hoop around a barrel – it keeps the separate pieces from acting independently under compressive loads. The bonded foundation accepts the force equally. I suspect you carried an invisible book into the dentist’s chair, the unfortunate dentist who advised you to have a crown and that invisible book was called "Dentistry for the uninformed patient, written by me, the uninformed patient"? The lesson of your experience is ‘Don’t make your own rules’. Accept professional advice, that is what you paid for and 99.9% of dentists are ethical and non-partisan in the proffered advice…. in fact, most of us would wish to spare the patient the advice and inconvenience of further treatment. The patient always wants to give you a big kiss when you tell them "That is it! No more treatment needed!" I understand your attachment to the partial denture, it can be addictive just like a baby’s dummy but the harm it is doing in overloading or altering the teeth and gums or the temperamental bone will take years before you become aware of the damage. Get rid of it for implants and crown any teeth with fillings larger than 2/3 the width of the tooth. It is in the literature! That’s how you take your teeth to heaven, and… it’s one way of taking your money with you! |
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