What Are The Pros & Cons Of Removable Partial Dentures?

You can derive many benefits from replacing missing teeth with removable partials. Replacement teeth help fill out your smile by giving support to the cheeks and lips. Replacement teeth create a more youthful, vibrant appearance by holding up facial muscles and aiding in speaking, chewing, swallowing, and smiling.

An important benefit that removable partial dentures provide is that of maintaining teeth in position. When you have a full complement of teeth, each tooth serves to keep the others in position. The teeth touching each other prevents teeth from moving from side to side.  The teeth touching each other by opposing each other keeps them from extruding (basically keeps them from growing more into the mouth). 

When a tooth is extracted, the teeth on either side of the space start collapsing into the space.  When this happens the teeth tilt at an angle and this angle makes those teeth more susceptible to bone loss from gum disease.  The tooth opposite the extracted tooth site moves up or down into the space created by the missing tooth.  This can be so extreme that the tooth opposing the extraction site can touch the opposite gums, thus interfering with chewing.

A con to replacing missing teeth with removable partial dentures is that the partial denture is usually kept in place by metal hooks that go around the remaining teeth on either side of the extraction site.  These hooks act like forceps and slowly weaken the teeth holding the partial and many times lead to the slow extraction of the supporting teeth. The clasps also make the supporting teeth more susceptible to decay. Removable partials generally move in function, which means they are uncomfortable to chew with.

It’s best to rely on removable partials as a temporary solution to tooth loss if finances are insufficient to do the more stable replacement of missing teeth with dental implants.

For more information about dental implants visit our blog or our website: www.tavorminadentistry.com

Healthy Gums Don't Bleed

In our last blog post I mentioned that healthy gums don’t bleed.  I want to discuss this fact more thoroughly to really drive this point home. Why? Because most people just don’t realize this is a fact. It doesn’t make sense to most people that healthy gums don’t bleed because people think that “everybody’s gums bleed, so this must be normal.” 

Well, it is true that most people’s gums do bleed, but it’s not because it’s healthy. It is an indication of how prevalent some form of gum disease is in the general population. Statistically, depending upon which study you read, anywhere from 70% to 95% of the population has some form of gum disease.  That’s why most people’s gums bleed; they have some degree of gum disease. Just because something is prevalent doesn’t mean it’s normal. For example, obesity has become quite prevalent in the U.S., but we all consider it unhealthy and something to be corrected.

Ponder this please – if you took a brush to the skin on your arm or leg or anywhere on your body, and when you brushed your skin it started to bleed, you’d be alarmed. So why is it then that when you brush or floss your teeth and they bleed, you think nothing of it? It’s the belief that bleeding gums are normal that keeps you from being alarmed and taking action. 

If bacterial plaque stays undisturbed beneath the gumline, inflammation and early stages of gum disease set in.  Left unchecked, the inflammation is an infection and as it progresses, the gums detach from the teeth, and the bone that holds your teeth in your jaw is destroyed (and you might not feel a thing)!

The solution is simple. Have a partnership with your dentist to keep this from happening or to keep things under control. Your home care techniques must have the bacteria that causes gum disease be removed not only from tooth surfaces, but from underneath the gums.

For information about other dental topics visit our website at: http://www.tavorminadentistry.com/