Superdentures

As we continue in life without teeth, the bone where the tooth used to be begins to shrink.  It’s like the famous line, “if you don’t use it , you lose it.”  People with dentures simply state that their denture feels like it’s getting “loose”.  So what do we do?  We reline the denture.  A reline is where we add more material to the underside of the denture to recapture the new shape of the jaw bone.  This allows for a better fit.  But what happened to all that bone?  And what happens if the bone shrinks away so much that the denture is forever “loose”?

Superdentures are the way to preserve a good tight fit and eliminate the bone loss.

What exactly is a superdenture?  And how does it stop the bone loss, allowing for a lifetime of available bone and a solid denture?

A superdenture is a denture that is attached to anchors in the mouth.  These anchors are called dental implants.  A dental implant is like a sonotube used in backyard deck building.  When building a deck, the sonotubes are drilled 4 feet deep and filled with concrete.  On top of this the deck is built.  This gives the deck support and strength.  The same with dental implants.

The underside of the superdenture has precision fitting gaskets that attach to the heads of the implants.  Now the denture is locked in, and gives superdenture strength.  No more sneezing and sending the denture halfway across the room!

But what about the bone loss?

Well, when anchors are fixed inside the jaw bone, the force of chewing on the denture gets transferred into the heads of the implants, then down through the body of the implants, and then into the bone surrounding the implants.  This force is high enough in intensity that the stimulation to the bone convinces the bone that “we’re still using it, so you can’t lose it yet”.  It’s like walking on a hardwood floor with high heels on versus with snowshoes.  There’s more force delivered under the small heel, because the weight of the person is the same, but the size of the heel is so small.  Whereas with a snowshoe, the force gets spread out further.  The little difference between high force versus low, spread out force is the difference between keeping bone and losing it forever.

Ask today if superdentures are right for you!