Removable dentures are an economical means to replace missing teeth, however in the long term they can have affects on your dental health. Dentures often result in significant limitations with food, loss of taste, looseness, and loss of confidence.
Issues you may experience wearing dentures:
- Gum and Mouth Pain/Discomfort/Irritation
- Don’t fit properly
- Difficulty eating
- Excess Saliva
- Bad Breath
- Gag Reflex
- Bone loss
- Falling out
Patients that have worn dentures for a number of years are likely to experience bone loss, which can be quite severe. In this case, standard implants will not be sufficient as there is not enough bone for traditional implants to remain securely embedded. In this case, we have alternative methods where we use different implants.
What can be done if I have poor/thinning bone?
We see a lot of patients that have poor/thinning bone and have been told elsewhere that all on 4 dental implants are not an option. However, we use a specific dental implant called Zygomatic (Zygoma) implants which are longer than standard implants and provide more support through the cheekbones. This approach is used for severely resorbed upper jaws or when the structure and/or quality of the jawbone is extremely limited. You can read more about this here. Regardless of how poor someone’s bone level is, there is always a possibility that they can have All On 4 Plus ® treatment with the help of Zygoma Implants.
How does All On 4 Plus address issues that dentures cause?
- Provides Stability- All On 4 Plus ® Dental Implants are a permanent solution, meaning that they do not come out. Patients don’t have to worry about them falling out or not fitting properly.
- Increased functionality- Patients are able to get back their function in terms of being able to eat ‘proper’ foods again such as corn, apples etc.
- Improved facial structure and balance- A lot of patients who have worn dentures for a long time and have thinning bone notice that their facial structure may collapse. When patients receive All On 4 Plus ® dental implants, this helps improve the facial structure.
- Requires less maintenance- Removable dentures require a lot of maintenance when it comes to cleaning them. All On 4 Plus ® Dental Implants are more practical and requires little to no maintenance. You clean them like you would your regular teeth.
- Reduced pain- Patients don’t have to worry about the pain that comes with ill fitting dentures as well as gum pain.
Patient Transformation
The below video is one of our patients Richard who had dentures for many years and received All On 4 Plus® treatment. Losing his teeth at a very young age meant that over the years, his level of bone had diminished greatly, which has left him with limited options moving forward. The only option he had was to have dentures at the time. He had difficulty eating as they were bulky in the mouth and made him gag and at time inflamed his gums. Watch his transformation in the video below.