We wish that we were using this blogpost to announce to you that our Knightdale dentist has discovered a foolproof, single-visit, inexpensive way to create the perfect set of dentures for every patient. If that were true, we would probably have folks lining up outside our door! Unfortunately, dental technology hasn’t quite made it to that point yet. The truth is, dentures are some of the most complicated items that your Knightdale dentist works with, and every time a patient is fitted for a set, there are a lot of considerations to work through. But don’t be discouraged—that’s all the more reason to make sure that you choose a dentist in Knightdale, NC that thoroughly understands the denture creation process and has guided many patients through it before you.
COPYING NATURE’S PERFECTION
Like anything that we live with and use constantly throughout the day, we don’t think too much about all of the things that our teeth really do for us. They obviously help us with the digestive process, but they are also an integral part of our speech. Making any change to the dental structure is bound to have a large effect on both the eating and the speaking processes, not to mention feeling very strange even when the teeth are not being used at all. There is simply no way for your Knightdale dentist to build a set of artificial dentures that absolutely match, to the very smallest measurement, your natural teeth, and thus every denture patient is in for a period of transition while they get used to the new addition to their mouth.
GETTING IT RIGHT
Fortunately, your dentist in Knightdale, NC does have some very advanced technologies at his disposal for creating dentures that fit the patient’s natural teeth and gums as closely as possible. Normally, we follow a five-step process to take impressions of the patient’s existing dental structure, build custom trays, try different parts of the dentures to ensure that they fit at each stage along the way, and make any needed final adjustments. It’s impossible to say exactly how long each patient’s process will take, because it depends in large part on what sort of dentures are being built. If only a few teeth need to be replaced, your dentist may be able to skip or combine some steps. If you need a complete set of dentures to replace your entire dental structure, however, it’s best to take time and get everything exactly right!
IMMEDIATE COMPLETE DENTURES
All dentures are complicated to design and build, but by far the most difficult process is that of providing immediate complete dentures. This process requires the extraction of multiple teeth in a single visit, then the immediate creation and delivery of a complete set of dentures. Because the dentures must be fitted in a very short amount of time, it is not possible to go through the full five-step process and achieve a good long-term fit. Again, this is even more reason to make sure that the Knightdale dentist you choose for this procedure knows the best practices, has the most advanced equipment, and is aware of the potential difficulties to avoid when you’re looking at getting immediate complete dentures.
As you can imagine, having multiple teeth extracted at one time is quite a dramatic change to your mouth. In the weeks following the process, the gums and bone of the mouth slowly change shape in response to that change, and as you can imagine, that in turn affects the way the new dentures fit and feel inside the mouth. Six months after having immediate complete dentures installed, the patient has another visit with the Knightdale dentist to make a few adjustments and re-fit the dentures to the mouth’s new formation. That’s usually sufficient to give the patient a comfortable, long-lasting, and great-looking new set of teeth!
YOUR DENTIST IN KNIGHTDALE, NC FOR DENTURES
Dentures are an extremely complicated business, and you shouldn’t entrust yours to a dentist that you don’t feel you can trust. We would love for you to meet our staff and talk with Dr. Eric Ladimer about your options—we know you’ll be impressed with his level of knowledge and his past success in this exciting yet challenging area.