Denture Stabilisation – Even after the best efforts are made to replace lost teeth with dentures we find that for a proportion of our patients dentures just do not meet expectations.
There may be many reasons; lack of gum tissue to hold the dentures in, the actual shape of the jaws so dentures don’t match up, patient wont accept denture limitations, old age and lack of chewing co-ordination. Whatever the cause we have a possible solution for loose dentures using denture stabilisation with dental implants.
The Locator System First off we have to ascertain that a patient is medically healthy and a suitable person to look after implants as they need maintenance and then to find out if there is suitable bone structure to fit implants. Most cases we work with are for full denture stabilisation although they are equally as successful for partial dentures. The process for full dentures involves placing two implants in the front of the lower jaw or four implants in the upper jaw allowing these to heal into place under your existing denture for approximately four months.
Once this healing process is complete there are small attachments fitted on top of the implants which just appear through the gum tissue (called abutments). If the denture is of good quality we then fit small attachments inside the denture. If the denture is old or ill-fitting it may need to be renewed before placing attachments. The dentures then clip on to the implants whilst still resting on the gums. A bit like fitting a jeans clip. This stabilisation process usually makes a great difference to denture suction and stability and the ability to chew more satisfactorily.
On occasions we have had patients tell us that this treatment has changed their lives where before they wouldn’t go out to a café or restaurant because they couldn’t find anything suitable on the menu that they felt they could eat. We have seen for ourselves how patients have gained in confidence, smile more and have had all over improvement in their well-being.