Implant Dentures are replacement teeth that usually replace all of the teeth in the mouth. They can be made the patients that have already been missing all their teeth foe awhile, and for those that have multiple damaged teeth that are not possible or practical to save and put back to service. Implant dentures can be removable as conventional denture, but can also be fixed permanently to the jaw, providing a confidence of natural teeth when it come to chewing your steak or chomping on the other delicious foods that demand performans from your teeth.

Here are 2 main kinds of implant dentures: overdentures (removable) and hybrid dentures (all-on4, non-removable).

Overdentures

This type of denture closely resembles a full denture and gains extra security from usually two dental implants.
The implants are then restored with a little locator-type abutment that couples with female plastic part that gets embedded to the denture.
The process of making such denture allows even for a modification of the existing full dentures. Meaning, that if you own a denture that you are happy with cosmetically, but don’t like that it wiggles too much in your mouth, you can get it attached to the implants without remaking the denture itself.
In 95% of all cases it is done on the lower jaw. Upper dentures show a so-called suction cup effect and can be stable without adding implants.

Advantages:

• Highly cosmetic
• Cost efficient
• More stable than conventional full dentures
• Versatile. The coupling elements can be changed to increase, decrease bonding strength or simply to replace worn off parts right in the chair, same day!
• Repairable. In most of the cases the denture can be repaired and does not need to be replaced.

Disadvantages:

• It is still a removable denture, as compared to hybrid denture described below.
• Larger footprint, leading to diminished temperature and taste perception.
• Requires care to and periodic replacement of the coupling inserts

Hybrid dentures

This is a dedicated implant supported restoration that shares very few features with conventional dentures. It is not removable, stays permanently in your mouth. It has a much smaller footprint in the mouth and allows for more accurate food taste transmission.

Advantages:

• Because of the small footprint, it allows its happy owner to taste foods and drinks better.
• It allows for more natural chewing force transmission (through the implant, skipping the gum compression).
• It is a non-removable construction, giving the patient an ultimate confidence in chewing steaks.

Disadvantages

• Higher cost as compared to conventional denture or implant overdentures.

The process of making the dentures calls for approximately 4 visits at which our office will take accurate molds, communicate with you the details of your smile design, will confirm the teeth setup and their fit to the implants. Finally, we will deliver you your new teeth and fix them to the implants. Some adjustments ma be necessary and they are included in the treatment.