What is a Permanent Denture?

A denture is a man made set of teeth for the upper and/or lower jaws. After the teeth are lost, all that is left is the gums covering the jaw bone. It is not the best situation to function. Practically a person cannot chew with the bare gums, being limited to eat only soft foods most of which are processed foods. Processed foods lose or have low nutritional value. The older we get, the lower the rate of nutrients absorbtion we have. So the older we get, the more valuable nutrients we need to ingest. The valuable nutrients are not found in processed foods. They are found in whole foods, fresh vegetables and fruit, etc…, all of which need to be chewed before they are swallowed. The bare gums with no teeth cannot accomplish that.
A denture has two components: artificial teeth and artificial gums. Artificial teeth can be composite teeth made from a plastic matrix filled with porcelain powder or can be pure porcelain teeth. Pure porcelain teeth are not in fashion anymore because of the higher cost, rigidity, making noises when patients bite and debonding from the gums part of the denture. composite denture teeth seem to mimmic the natural teeth better. Artificial gums(base of the denture) are made from plastic material and sit on top of the natural gums and adhere to them by suction.
The upper jaw bone is at least four times wider in surface than the loer jaw bone. This makes the upper denture more stable than the lower denture. In order to stabilize the dentures and increase retention, the patients use “denture glue” like Fixodent. The disadvantage with that is that Fixodent disolves slowly being constantly swallowed and it needs to be replaces(costly in the long term). Even with “denture glue” the dentures are still wably and patients cannot bite on the dentures more than 10-15% of the biting force that they would use of they had natural teeth or implants.
The permanent dentures are also known as dentures retained and stabilized by dental implants. Because they are supported by dental implants they do not need glue and the patient can put more pressure on the denture teeth almost as high as he would have had natural teeth. Stability, retention, chewing ability, comfort(not pressing on the gums), estetics are all way better than just dentures.
In some circles “permanent dentures” term is used also to differentiate from “immediate dentures” which are dentures that are given to the patient immediately after taking teeth out. The immediate dentures need to be replaced after 3 to 6 months with more permanent dentures because they do not fit anymore.
If you need dentures or need to make your dentures more stable in your mouth, so they do not move, etc… please contact my office, Sewell Dental Arts located in Washington Township NJ for a free consultation. I am sure you are going to be happy that you did it.