How To Hold Onto Your Dentures

You should only lose your teeth once.
If you get dentures, we feel comfortable saying that you probably want to keep them in your mouth. But we have learned that dentures can come loose when people are talking, when people are eating, and when people are skydiving.
Wait … skydiving?
That’s what happened to Polly Chester, 72, of Florida. Polly decided that she wanted to jump out of an airplane. When she did, her dentures went flying, too.
We know this is kind of an extreme example, but it’s also shows the importance of securing your dentures.
Dental implants can hold your dentures in place (and give you a few other benefits as well). If you live in or near Lexington and want to know more about dental implants, visit any Beaumont Family Dentistry location.
Security You Can Count On
Millions of people lose their teeth every year. In fact, the American College of Prosthodontists estimated that 23 million people in the United States have lost all of their natural teeth, and another 12 million people have lost one complete arch of teeth.
A vast majority of those people replace their missing teeth with dentures.
That’s not quite the same as restoring what they lost, however.
When you lose your teeth, you lose your smile. You lose your ability to eat the foods that you love.
And you may very well lose self-confidence.
Dentures can give you the appearance of teeth, but teeth don’t slip out of position when people are talking.
Teeth allow you to eat whatever you want. By themselves, dentures can’t do that.
As far as confidence goes, that is going to vary from person to person.
Since you can’t regrow your adult teeth, dental implants are your best option for getting back your smile, your chewing ability, and the confidence that your teeth will stay in place.
Why Dental Implants Are Secure
Typical dentures rest over your gums. You may use an adhesive to help keep them in place, but there is a limit to how much good that will do.
If you had two blocks of wood, you could use some wood glue to piece them together. Yet, you would know that you could pull them apart without too much effort.
That’s basically what happens when you use an adhesive to hold your dentures in place. That’s also why taking a bite of an apple can pry your dentures loose.
Dental implants provide a much more solid foundation for your dentures.
To go back to our analogy with the pieces of wood, imagine each piece of wood had a hole. If you put a pin inside the holes, those pieces of wood would stay connected. It would take a tremendous effort to pull them apart.
Implants are basically the same thing as that pin. Dental implants are titanium cylinders that are placed into your jawbone.
It’s important to note that implants encourage new growth in your jawbone. With this growth, the bone bonds directly to the cylinders, just like it does to natural teeth.
This new growth also makes your jawbone healthier and stronger, and therefore, a more solid foundation to support your dentures.
Security Is Stability
Implant-secured dentures are much more stable than dentures held in place with an adhesive.
This can save you from the embarrassment of your dentures slipping loose while you are telling a funny story from your last vacation or when you are meeting with a potential new client.
This also can save you from feeling ashamed because your dentures came loose when you tried to chew a bite of steak during an anniversary dinner with your spouse.
With dental implants, you can feel confident that your implants will stay in place whenever you are speaking. You can rest assured that you can bite into anything — apples, corn on the cob, caramels, and steak — and your dentures will stay in place.
Which brings us back to skydiving … Polly Chesser did not find her dentures after they fell out of her mouth during her big jump. Instead, she spent nearly $1,000 to replace them.
Now, we do not know if dental implants will hold your dentures in place if you decide to jump out of an airplane. But, for day-to-day situations, dental implants will keep your dentures where they are supposed to be — in your mouth.
Hold On Tight
If you have dentures or you have been considering getting them, we encourage you to visit any Beaumont Family Dentistry location to discuss how dental implants can help you.
To make an appointment, call or fill out the online form for the office that’s closest to you. With three dentist offices in Lexington, we have patients from Georgetown, Richmond, and throughout Central Kentucky.