REPLACEMENT OF
MISSING TEETH

• Removable dentures are made from acrylic material and can be removed and put back in mouth at will. The concept of removable dentures is fast becoming extinct due to the advent of implants. But there are few people who still prefer removable dentures do due cost effectiveness.

• There are two types of dentures:- Complete or full dentures that replace all lost natural teeth either in upper /lower jaw or both the jaws.

• Then you have partial dentures where only the lost or missing teeth are replaced. They can be supported by using metal clasps around natural teeth for retention.

• Mostly acrylic (plastic) is used and sometimes cast metal alloy dentures along with acrylic are also made but, these dentures are rigid. Recently fexidenture material is available which makes the denture very flexible.

• When dentures are made of acrylic they become very bulky and can cause difficulty in speech and chewing. In such cases metal is used in supporting areas of denture like palate. Metal also gives more strength to the denture and chances of warping or fracture reduces.

• For complete dentures first the impression of the concerned jaw is taken. After that a special custom made tray is made to make final impression of all minor details on and around the ridge. After final impression mouth moulds are made and then temporary denture base is prepared with wax gums. These temporaray gums are placed in the patient’s mouth to check the height and lip fullness of the patient. After the height is checked artificial teeth are placed on these wax rims and again checked in the patient’s mouth. The patient is made to talk and smile to check the lip fullness and corner of the mouth. After the patient approves the temporary denture base it is sent to the lab for fabrication of the final denture. This procedure takes 5-6 visits.

Fixed denture/ bridge is so called as it uses support of adjacent teeth to replace a missing tooth. In this case one adjacent tooth on either side of the space are trimmed and then crowns are placed on the natural teeth which is called an abutment and the missing space is filled with a tooth called pontic.

But the biggest disadvantage of the bridge is that the intact natural teeth are trimmed to replace a missing tooth. Other thing is that one needs natural tooth on either side of the space to make a bridge. Hence, missing second molar is difficult to be replaced by a bridge. The emergence profile of a bridge is not as good as an implant, thus implants are preferred to replace teeth especially in front region.