Restoring Your Smile To Its Former Brilliance
Everyone deserves to have a great smile, but for those who have a few missing teeth, it can feel like the days of having a bright, healthy looking smile are a thing of the past. Whether it was due to tooth decay, sports injury, a medical condition, or any other reason, losing some or all of your teeth will not only leave you with that feeling that your smile is incomplete, but will also affect the structure of your face over time.
At the office of Drs. Ryan Holbrook and Jose Horak, we can restore your smile with dentures or partials, so you can go back to the lifestyle you had before you were missing teeth. You can eat, talk and smile like you used to with a personalized dental appliance that is comfortable and looks like your natural teeth. Working with the communities of Venice, Englewood and the surrounding areas, our professional dental team has helped countless patients get their radiant smiles back with dentures. If you would like to learn more about how dentures can help you, check out the information below.
Do I Need Dentures?
Your teeth and the jawbone underneath the gums are important parts of your entire facial structure, supporting your lips and the surrounding skin, giving your face the shape you’ve come to know. When you lose teeth, the jawbone that was connected to those teeth will begin to fade away, and so does the support that it was providing to the structure of your face. As a result, the skin around the face will begin to droop, creating a more aged appearance. With dentures, we restore the support that is necessary to maintain a more youthful facial structure. Additionally, when a person loses their entire row of upper or lower teeth, their chewing capability decreases to 10% of what they had with their natural teeth. With dentures, this chewing capability will increase dramatically. Go through your day with confidence now that you have your smile back.
How Do Dentures Work?
Dentures are designed to fill in any gaps in your smile, from a few mising teeth to and entire arch. Using a combination of special resins, plastics, metals, and other materials, we construct a denture that will comfortably fit over your gums and jawbone where teeth are missing, while matching the look and feel of your natural teeth. Once your denture is in place, it will function just like your normal teeth would, so you can chew your food, smile, and do anything else as if you still had all of your natural teeth.
Types Of Dentures
To create the perfect denture for you, our doctors will first conduct an initial examination to identify the current state of your supporting jawbone, and determine what the best approach is for restoring your smile. There are different types of dentures available, including removable partial dentures, a complete dentures, or implant supported partial or full dentures. The type that will best suit you depends on your personal oral health and the state of your jawbone.
Removable Partial Dentures
Partial dentures are recommended for those who are missing multiple teeth, but not an entire arch. A partial is designed to fill in the space between teeth with a natural looking replacement tooth that is held in place using claps that are attached to neighboring teeth. Partials can also be customized to replace missing teeth that are not adjacent to one another, fitting over existing teeth and filling in the gaps like a puzzle piece. The partial is also removable, providing you with the support when you need it, while making the appliance easy to clean when taken out.
Removable Complete Dentures
Complete dentures are designed to replace the teeth for the entire upper or lower arch. The denture rests on the ridges of the gums, holding in place through either the natural support of the gums or with the help of a denture adhesive. As the jawbone will naturally wear away due to the missing teeth, the denture may slip out of place, often making the use of denture adhesive the only option to keep the denture secure.
Implant Supported Dentures & Partials
By using dental implants, we can create a more secure connection between the denture and the jawbone for a more stable restoration, while also preserving your healthy jawbone for a longer lasting smile. With a dental implant, we perform a small surgical procedure to insert a titanium post into your gums, which eventually fuses to your jawbone. Once the implant is fused, it provides a strong base for a dental appliance to be attached, such as a partial or full denture. Depending on how many teeth are missing, multiple implants may be needed to create ample support for the denture. With this type of denture, you no longer need to worry about using denture adhesive or the denture slipping out of place. Also, since the denture is attached to your natural jawbone via the implant, the jawbone is less likely to deteriorate compared to removable dentures.
Let Us Help You Get Your Smile Back!
If you want to restore your smile so it can be complete again, just contact us at the dental office of Drs. Holbrook and Horak today to schedule an appointment. We’ll work with you to create a personalized treatment plan and match you with the perfect denture so you can have a beautiful, healthy and strong smile! If you have any questions about dentures, or are interested in any of our other general and cosmetic dentistry services, just contact us and a member of our staff will be more than happy to provide you with all of the information you need. We look forward to welcoming you into our office, introducing you to our team, and getting you started on the path to a more brilliant smile.