Have you lost teeth recently? If so, you have multiple options to restore your smile. Our restorative dentist may recommend dental implants or dentures, depending on your situation.
Let’s take a look at the differences between dental implants and dentures. We’ll go over their pros and cons as well as what might make you better suited for one procedure over the other.
What Are Dentures?
Dentures are an oral appliance made to look and function like natural teeth. Depending on the extent of tooth loss, our dentist may recommend a full or partial denture.
While a full denture replaces an entire arch of teeth, a partial denture only replaces a few teeth. We can help you explore different types of available, including partial, complete, conventional, and immediate dentures.
Dentures sit on top of your gums and must be removed before you go to sleep so your gums have a chance to recover. When you’re not wearing your dentures, they’ll need to be submerged in a glass of water or denture cleanser so they don’t dry out, crack, or warp.
What Are Dental Implants?
A dental implant is a prosthetic tooth root, typically made of titanium, that is placed in your jaw to later support a crown. Many patients appreciate that dental implants look and function like natural teeth. This means you’ll be able to continue eating your favorite foods without worrying about slipping dentures.
Take care of your dental implants like you would your natural teeth. That means brushing for two minutes twice a day, flossing daily, and continuing to see our dentist for a routine teeth cleaning every six months.
Dentures vs. Dental Implants: Pros and Cons
While dentures are more affordable than dental implants, they don’t solve the problem of jawbone deterioration. As soon as your body detects a missing tooth, it will start to absorb the minerals in your jaw to use elsewhere.
Once this happens, the area of the jaw where the tooth root used to be will weaken and deteriorate. Teeth adjacent to the gap will also start to tilt toward the open space. Eventually, you may experience facial collapse, which alters the shape of your face and makes it difficult to wear dentures.
The best way to prevent further tooth loss and jawbone deterioration is to ask our dentist if you’re a candidate for the dental implant procedure. In general, we recommend dental implants whenever possible so patients can avoid long-term health issues caused by missing teeth.
Candidates for Dental Implants
Healthy gum tissue and sufficient bone density in your jaw are necessary to be considered a good candidate for dental implants. This is because there has to be enough jawbone tissue to support the titanium dental implant in a process called .
Our dental implant dentist can help you determine if you’re a likely candidate for the dental implant procedure. Even if you’re not a candidate for dental implants, we can help you explore other tooth replacement options.
Restore Your Smile with Dental Implants
Our Grand Rapids, MI, restorative dentist offers both dentures and dental implants to restore patients’ smiles. Call Precision Family Dental today at (616) 949-1570, or contact us online to request an appointment.
This blog post has been updated.