Dr. Isabelle Farmer is a practicing dentist at Houston SmileDocs in Texas. A graduate of Texas A&M University and the University of Texas Dental School, she went on to start her dental practice in 1984. In this article, she explains why so many denture wearers are unhappy, and what they can do to fix that.
Millions of Americans wear dentures today. Unfortunately, a lot of these people are not happy with their dentures for a variety of reasons. By and large, the two main reasons that I see why patients are not happy with their dentures are:
- Their dentures don’t fit well. What it usually means if a denture doesn’t fit well is that the original impression that was taken of the patient’s mouth was not done very well.
- The denture moves, and it moves a lot. This is typically more likely to happen with a lower denture, which can be difficult to hold into place.
Because there is no way to get suction on the lower level of your mouth, people wearing lower dentures can have a difficult time keeping them in place. They can move around a lot and become irritating. What we commonly do for patients who have this problem is to place a dental implant in the mouth to help secure the denture. With a dental implant, we can ensure that the lower denture doesn’t move all over the place anymore. Of course, not all patients have this problem. But about 80% of denture patients really do not like how their lower denture fits, which is why we are putting in the dental implant to make their life easier and keep the denture in place.
The reason this problem doesn’t happen as commonly with the upper denture has to do with suction. Essentially, with an upper denture, you can develop suction on the roof of the mouth. It’s thanks to this that the upper denture usually stays in place pretty well, believe it or not, even though gravity is working against it.
Ideally we as dentists would like it if nobody had to wear dentures. We would prefer if everyone kept their teeth healthy and clean. Unfortunately, that is not reality. In the real world, the truth is that some people are going to neglect their teeth, for whatever reason. Whether it is because they don’t care about their teeth, their teeth are not a priority in their lives, they do not have the financial means to adequately take care of their teeth over time, or because fear has kept them from the dentist for so long that their smile has deteriorated to the point of no return—it is our job as dentists to get these patients properly fitted for dentures that are going to be as comfortable to wear as possible.
It behooves dentists to make a really good denture. It’s one of the reasons we have gotten into the denture field at our practice, because we feel like there is a real need out there. Patients need a good fitting denture, and they need to a place to go to get it. We have teeth now that we can place in dentures that look so close to natural teeth that it is hard to tell between a patient who is wearing dentures and a patient who has a natural smile. That is what patients are looking for—a denture that looks really good and as close to a natural smile as possible. A quality denture can really help restore the way a person looks and bring them back to a youthful appearance. So a denture is a necessary part of what dentists do on a day-to-day basis.
Unfortunately, a lot of dentists don’t like to do dentures. This is for a number of reasons, but mainly because fitting and positioning patients into dentures is not an easy thing to do. You have to kind of baby patients through the fitting process, and that is a difficult process to go through for many people. So you have to be willing to help the patient go through the transition of natural teeth to dentures, which is anything but an easy transition.
I think it’s important that we as dentists keep in mind that even if someone needs a denture, he deserves the best treatment that we can give. And that is what helped us to decide that we would do dentures here in our practice, because we saw that there was a real need for it.
The information in the article is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.
