Little frustrations can make for a really bad day. Lots of bad days can add up to a bad week, month, or year. If you are living with loose-fitting dentures, then we don’t need to explain how those little frustrations can add up.
Never knowing when your dentures might fall out or come loose can affect how you live your life. You may want to say something, but don’t want to risk the embarrassment of losing your teeth in the middle of a sentence. You may want to order a steak with steam carrots for dinner, but you aren’t confident that you’ll be able to bite and chew your food.
We can help end your frustration at Advanced Dental Center of Florence. Our doctors can help you get mini dental implants to hold your dentures securely in your mouth.
Mini implants may be small, but they pack a full-sized punch that can help you talk and eat comfortably.
Stop worrying about when your teeth will come loose again. Schedule a consultation with one of our doctors in Florence, SC. Call (843) 588-1919 now to set up your appointment.
Why Dentures Come Loose
Have you ever built a fence? One of the most important steps is putting in fence posts. These anchor your fence in the ground so it will remain standing.
How long do you think your fence would last without the posts? Embedding the posts in the ground provides stability that makes the entire structure stronger.
Now think about traditional dentures. They are made to fit over your gums. Sure, good dentures are custom-molded to fit the shape of your mouth, but there’s nothing holding them in position.
Even in the best circumstances, those dentures are just resting on a wet surface. It’s inevitable that they will get pushed or pulled out of place from time to time.
You also need to keep in mind that if you are missing teeth, your jaw will change. That will lead to changes in the shape of your mouth, which will also affect how well — or how poorly — your dentures fit.
Why does your jaw change? The short answer is because you no longer have roots.
You see, roots do more than just anchor your teeth in your jaw. Your roots also help your jaw stay healthy. When you eat, your roots press into your jaw with each bite and every chew.
Your jaw responds to that pressure by making new bone tissue. This is essential for keeping your jaw healthy. New tissue is needed to replace old tissue as it is absorbed back into your body.
Without new tissue to replace the resorbed tissue, your jaw loses mass and density. That affects the shape of your mouth
This is why traditional dentures become looser the longer people have them. It also explains why dentures need to be replaced or relined every few years.
Holding Dentures in Place
Most people with traditional dentures have at least tried using denture adhesives at one time or another.
Can adhesives help? Sure, they work to some degree, but those benefits are only temporary. Each application of adhesive will wash away gradually.
Maybe more importantly, using denture adhesives don’t address the underlying problem. Your dentures are not connected to your jawbone. Your jaw will continue to shrink regardless of how much adhesive you use.
Even with adhesive, you won’t be able to match the biting power of someone with a full set of healthy teeth. That means many foods will be too difficult to eat comfortably.
To prevent bone loss, you need something to do for your dentures what your roots did for your teeth. That’s exactly what dental implants were created to do.
Modern implants mimic the general shape of roots. They are placed directly into your jaw like your roots once were. A series of implants has proven to be an effective way to keep dentures secure and stable in patients’ mouths.
When you have implant-supported dentures, you have made a direct connection from your dentures to your jaw. This allows you to generate more power with every bite and chew. You will be able to eat that steak-and-carrots meal we mentioned earlier and so much more.
With the implants, your jaw will get the stimulation it needs to continue making new bone tissue. This won’t replace the tissue you’ve already lost, but it can prevent further bone loss down the road.
Getting Small, Keeping the Big Benefits
With any invention or innovation, people will continue looking for ways to make it better.
We see this with electronics all the time. Computers used to fill entire rooms. Now, most of us carry a smartphone, which is essentially a pocket-sized computer.
In dentistry, mini implants have provided a big advance in restorative care. At one time, people used to think that mini implants were only good as a temporary solution. With time and improvements, mini implants have proven that they can last the rest of your life and provide the same advantages as full-sized implants.
We know from our personal experiences helping thousands of patients that mini implants will keep dentures secure in your mouth. Mini implants will give you the power to bite into an apple or to chew a bite of fried chicken as easily as you could before you lost your teeth.
You also will be able to enjoy the taste of your foods without the aftertaste of an adhesive getting in the way.
End Your Frustrations
Mini implants even offer some advantages over standard implants. Minis are less invasive, so you heal faster. Minis are less expensive (since they can save you the need of a bone graft procedure).
By getting implants, you can enjoy your implant-supported dentures sooner without losing any of the benefits.
If you are ready to find out what mini implants can do for your smile, then you should make plans to talk to one of our doctors. Contact us online today or call (843) 588-1919 to reach the Advanced Dental Center of Florence.