Older Americans (aged 65 and up) are quite familiar with tooth loss — about 26% have eight or fewer teeth and 1 in 6 have lost all of their teeth. These numbers explain why nearly 41 million people in the United States use dentures to replace rows of missing teeth.
No matter your age, if you find yourself with significant tooth loss, the effects can be devastating to your well-being, making dentures a very good idea. But, not all dentures are created equal.
In this month’s blog post, our team at Hillsdale Dental Care, under the direction of Drs. Magdalena Azzarelli and Roge Jacob, wants to explore the benefits of a certain type of denture — implant-supported dentures or snap-on dentures. Let’s take a look.
Traditionally, dentures are held in place by adhesives and suction, which are effective, but fall short of the stability that you enjoyed with your natural teeth.
With snap-on dentures, we place dental implants into your jawbone that act as formidable anchors for your prosthetic teeth. The reason for this superior stability is that when we surgically implant the metal posts, bone tissue grows up and around them, fusing them into place. For all intents and purposes, your jawbone treats the implant as it would the roots of a natural tooth, ensuring its stability with constant bone remodeling in the area.
As a result, your dentures have ample foundational support and won’t slip around as traditional dentures are inclined to do. This stability makes chewing and talking easier.
As we alluded to above, one of the side effects of missing teeth is bone loss in your jaw. When you lose your teeth, there are no longer any roots that descend into your jawbone, which signals that the area is now inactive. As a result, bone ceases to remodel and the progressive bone loss can lead to facial collapse. By facial collapse, we’re referring to a sunken-in look around your mouth.
With implant-supported dentures, we can prevent some of this bone loss by reactivating bone growth in your jaw with the implants.
Another benefit of snap-on dentures is that they’re easier on your sensitive gum tissues than traditional dentures. Since you’re not relying on adhesives and suction, and the prosthetic teeth are held firmly in place by the dental implants, the dentures won’t slip around and irritate your gums.
As the name suggests, the snap-on dentures are exactly that — you simply snap them into place using the dental implants. This makes placing and removing your dentures each morning and night, well, a snap.
To learn more about the advantages of snap-on dentures and whether they’re right for you, please contact our office in San Jose, California, to schedule a consultation.
