Missing a tooth can lead to bone loss, shifting teeth, and changes in facial appearance. It can affect your bite, cause facial sagging, and lead to crooked teeth due to shifting. Replace missing teeth to avoid these issues.
If you are missing a tooth, it is important to have it replaced. Losing a tooth results in bone loss, shifting teeth, and changes in the structure of your facial muscles, which will alter your appearance. You may experience changes in your bite, facial sagging, and teeth that have become crooked because they have shifted.
A missing tooth can be replaced with a dental implant or bridge. However, once you’ve lost more than one tooth, and especially once you’ve lost up to 3, it’s time to consider getting dentures. The more teeth you lose, the more difficult it becomes to properly chew your food, speak clearly, and maintain your facial structure. It will also increase your risk of losing additional teeth.
Dentures restore the appearance, structure, and function of your natural teeth. They assist with chewing, pronouncing words, holding your teeth into place, and preventing your face from sagging. If you’re interested in dentures, contact us at Waterfront Dental today to schedule an appointment in Baltimore with Dr. Dawn Merguerian.
For implant-supported dentures, a series of titanium implants will be placed into the jaw bone. Over 3-6 months, osseointegration will occur (the implants will become fused with the jawbone) after which the abutments can be attached, and then the dental crowns for the tooth restorations.
While you wait for the complete healing of your jaw through osseointegration, you will receive temporary dentures from our Baltimore office. Once osseointegration is complete, you will receive your official dentures that were created from impressions of your teeth.
For full dentures, the patient’s teeth will be extracted and a temporary denture will be placed while the gums heal over 8-12 weeks. Impressions are taken of the teeth before extraction of the teeth to construct a prosthesis that mimics the patient’s bite and fits in their jaw. The impressions are sent to a dental lab that creates the dentures and the patient will have a trial fitting before approving them.
During this fitting, the patient informs the dentist if any adjustments need to be made. At a separate appointment, once the official dentures have been received, we will have a final fitting, and the dentures are held in place through suction around the gums.
It is normal for there to be an adjustment period when receiving your first set of dentures or receiving new dentures. It takes about 30 days to get used to the feeling of dentures in your mouth. Within this period, you may experience irritation to your gums, increased saliva, difficulty pronouncing certain sounds, an inability to eat a normal diet, and some soreness.
When you first receive your dentures, we recommend sticking to a diet of soft foods. To relieve gum soreness and pain, rinse your mouth with a lukewarm saltwater solution and take anti-inflammatory pain relief. Excessive saliva can be mitigated by sucking on a hard candy that increases how often you swallow.
It will become easier to speak clearly if you practice pronouncing sounds that are most difficult for you while wearing dentures. You should regularly talk out loud and practice tongue twisters, focusing on words that pronounce the “f” and “s” sounds.
If you find that you continue to experience discomfort or that your denture is shifting around too much, you may need a denture adhesive or an adjustment in the fitting of your dentures. As time passes, you will get used to the feeling of your dentures, be able to increase solid foods and speak more clearly.
