The Digital Dental Surgeon

Dentures are one of the solutions to toothloss. In Malaysia especially in the rural community, denture-wearers are quite common. They are relatively cheap and widely available from government or private clinics.

Dentures are made from acrylic resin and sometimes added with metal such as chromium cobalt alloy to strengthen it. Dentures are made by trained dental technicians and sometimes by the dentist him/herself (dentists are trained to construct dentures as well during their study of dentistry).

The stucture of the dentures are made out of acrylic resin and sometimes strengthened with metal such as chromium cobalt alloy. Sometimes the dentists incorporate wires to increase stability and retention.

Myth: Dentures are better than natural teeth as they do not give off pain

This in entirely untrue.

Yes, dentures do not give out pain as they do not contain nerves as opposed to natural teeth. But having dentures themselves would be quite a burden to bear especially to the first-time user.

Dentures are typically plasticky hard and this could traumatise the soft tissues. It is not uncommon to see patients with ulcers and pain upon wearing dentures. Having these large acrylic prostheses in the mouth may also be uncomfortable and sometimes gag the patient.

Myth: A person needs to have all his/her teeth out before having dentures

This is also untrue.

Patients may have dentures as replacement for lost teeth eventhough they still have remaining healthy teeth. It is recommended to have completed any fillings, scaling or any other treatments done first prior to having dentures but extraction of healthy or saveable teeth is not recommended. To have remaining teeth in the mouth would help in the stability of future dental prostheses (through having wires tagging onto the remaining teeth are one of the ways to stabilise the dentures).

Myth: Dentures are easy to maintain and can be worn indefinitely

Dentures are relatively easy to maintain. They don’t usually rust, and no servicing is needed to keep the dentures in use although there would be recommended length of usage (I would personally recommend not more than 5 years although others might differ).

One important myth that I would like to address is having dentures worn all the time, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and, God forbid, 365 days a year without ever taking them out to wash.

Imagine wearing your socks for 365 days a year without taking them off to the cleaners. Eww!

Denture hygiene is very important and should be followed religiously as with brushing out teeth (I do know there are people out there who neglects brushing their teeth without any sense of regret at all). Dentures can be worn during eating, talking and other activities but not during sleep.

Why?

Sleep in this context, I refer to sleeping during the night. This is the time your soft tissues in the mouth need a thorough cleaning and rest from the dentures. Dentures should be cleaned with water and a brush and kept in a container filled with water before going off to slumber land. Oh, don’t forget to brush the remaining teeth in your mouth as well! Dentures can be worn again after another round of toothbrushing in the morning.

Having dentures in the mouth for long and extended periods of time will promote bacterial and fungal growth in the mouth. Soreness, reddish gums and palate are normal signs that denture hygiene is not well adhered to.

Dentures are slowly being phased out by more complicated and innovative ways to replace lost teeth which will be continued in the next post of The Replacements.

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