About Dentures

Upper and Lower Dentures
The dentures are for either first time clients or replacing existing dentures.  Dentures need to be replaced about every 6 – 10 years as the gums have receded and the denture teeth have worn.  When the denture gets to this stage, they lose a lot of their efficiency as the jaw muscles compensate for the wear and looseness.  Also eating food can become very slow because chewing ability is very compromised with the loss of bite height.  It can also cause wrinkles as the mouth is over closing.
The new dentures are made as a team effort with imput from the patient as to what result they would like from the new dentures.  There are four separate appointments lasting about 15 minutes each, to go through the different stages to make the dentures.
All the materials we use are of a high quality, usually derived from Europe.

Relines
Bone resorption is an ongoing thing with the mouth when teeth have been extracted.  This results in the denture not sitting evenly on the gums and can cause mouth ulcers.  This is especially so after very recent extractions.  The way to remedy the problem is to have a reline of the denture.  This involves coming in and having a reline impression inside the fitting surface of the denture and then leaving it with us for 24 hours to process the new acrylic onto the denture.  We also offer a temporary reline service, done chairside in about 20 minutes.  This is for clients who need relief before the permanent reline is done.

Partial Dentures
These are for people who have some of their own teeth and need a denture to fill the gaps.  These can be made after a visit to your Dentist to have the remaining teeth checked and cleaned.  The Dentist then gives you an 'Oral Health Certificate' to take with you on your first appointment with the technician.  They can be made from a variety of materials, including acrylic, metal or Valplast ( which is flexible). We discuss the price and the merits of all the materials and decide together which is the best for you.  There is a big range of colours and shapes of teeth so we can usually match the natural teeth pretty well.

Dental Implants
These are a new way of securely holding in dentures.  It involves some oral surgery to fit the titanium implants and then a denture or fixed gold bar fitting over the top of them.  It requires working in with your Dentist and Oral Surgeon.  We can give you the names of these specialists at the time.

To make an appointment to discuss your denture requirements, please call us on 07 576 1150.