Implant Dentures – Forest Park, OH

What are Implant Dentures?

With implant dentures, dentures are held securely in place with dental implants. You still wear dentures, but dental implants hold them in place. You can still remove your dentures.

Why Implant Dentures?

There are a number of reasons why you might decide to choose implant retained dentures over traditional dentures, which include the following:

• Improved ability to speak and chew: Typically, when you have a missing tooth, your oral health benefits most by having it replaced. Having missing teeth can impact your ability to chew and speak and affect your “bite.” Implant-retained dentures are specifically designed to provide you with an effective bite by taking the force of your bite directly to your bone.
• Reduced headaches and muscle pain: Traditional dentures can also place more burden on the teeth you have remaining, causing headaches and muscle pain in your jaw. It can, of course, impact your appearance as well.
• Reduced number of implants: You don’t need as many dental implants either, and often mini-implants can secure your dentures.
• Improved function overdentures: Dentures alone don’t function like your natural teeth. Many people only wear their upper or lower dentures a certain percentage of the time (not both at the same time). Others don’t wear them at all since dentures lack retention and are unstable. The lower denture is often called a “floater” since it floats in your mouth instead of being anchored into place securely. Because of this, you can’t eat the same quality of food you once enjoyed when you had your natural teeth. This can lead to poor digestion, nutrition, and health. Also, the underlying bone you need for keeping your dentures in place is continually dissolving because the denture isn’t stimulating the bone like your natural teeth. Dentures actually make your bone go away. And, the more you lose bone over time, the worse fit your dentures will be. Fortunately, implant-retained dentures solve this problem.

Types of Implant Dentures

There are a couple of implant-retained denture types:

• Removable overdentures: These are standard dentures our dentist anchors into your mouth by fitting them over a bar that’s attached to conventional implants or over just mini or conventional implants. They’re called overdentures because they fit over the dental implants. They’re removable and you need to take them out after you eat and for cleaning at night and in the morning. Basically, you treat these the same way you would regular dentures.
• Non-removable fixed dentures: These are another option. They’re also referred to as fixed detachable dentures or hybrid dentures. They stay in your mouth all the time. You treat them like you would your natural teeth, brushing and flossing them every day. Our dentist anchors these in with four or more implants per jaw. They’re classified as not removable (permanent), though our dentist could take them out if needed without causing any damage to the underlying implants. These provide you with the best function second to having your natural teeth and are the strongest between the two implant-retained denture types. At our dental office, we offer the teeth x-press system for this type of implant denture.

Questions You May Have About Implant Dentures

Below are a couple of questions we often receive from patients considering implant retained dentures.