What Are the Benefits of Implant-Supported Dentures?
Implant-supported dentures, also known as overdentures, offer a superior solution for replacing missing teeth, delivering beautiful, healthy, and functional smiles. These gold standard restorations offer exceptional stability and function, second only to healthy natural teeth. Dr. Blackmon and his patient-centered team at Guided Smiles Prosthodontics & Implant Center will personalize every step of your care to restore your smile and enhance quality of life.
What Are Implant-Supported Dentures?
Traditional removable dentures or partials offer a cost-effective solution for replacing several or a complete arch of missing teeth. These time-tested oral prosthetics rest on the gums or rely on facial muscles for support. While they may help enhance your smile’s function, they sometimes shift or slip when you eat, speak, or laugh, especially when it comes to the lower arch.
Implant-supported dentures draw on the benefits of traditional dentures and those of dental implants. These removable overdentures snap onto a few implants placed in your jawbone, providing exceptional stability, comfort, and function.
What Are the Benefits of Implant-Supported Dentures?
Implant-supported dentures provide a gold-standard solution for tooth replacement. They offer numerous benefits, including the following:
- Natural-Looking and Feeling: Implant-supported dentures are designed to look and feel like your natural teeth, enhancing your smile’s appearance and function.
- Offering Superior Stability: Your overdentures are secured to dental implants placed securely in your jawbone, giving you the confidence they will not slip or shift when you eat, speak, or laugh.
- Restoring Chewing Function: Your implant-supported restoration will allow you to chew with more comfort and confidence, restoring your ability to enjoy the foods you love.
- Improving Speech Clarity: The stability your new overdentures offer will help you speak more clearly without slurring or a lisp that may develop after tooth loss.
- Reducing Bone Loss: Dental implants act like natural tooth roots, stimulating the surrounding bone and helping minimize the bone resorption and loss that typically occur after tooth loss.
- Enhancing Comfort: Overdentures are secured to dental implants, so they won’t rub against the gums as traditional removable dentures sometimes do, which may cause irritation or sore spots.
- Supporting Facial Structure: Your replacement teeth will support your facial structure, preventing the sunken appearance that often occurs with extensive tooth loss.
- They Maintain Healthy Alignment: Implant-supported partials can keep any remaining teeth from drifting toward the gap, maintaining the healthy alignment of your teeth and bite.
- They Provide a Confidence Boost: Your natural-looking, stable restorations will allow you to speak, eat, and smile with confidence once again.
- They Are Long-Lasting: Implant dentistry is predictable and highly successful, and with proper care and maintenance, your overdentures can enhance your smile for decades, or even a lifetime.
Who Is a Candidate for Implant-Supported Dentures?
Implant-supported dentures may be ideal for patients with healthy gums, sufficient bone density and quantity, and good oral and overall health. They must also be free from health conditions that interfere with healing, such as uncontrolled diabetes, be non-smokers or willing to quit smoking, and commit to a meticulous at-home oral hygiene routine to help ensure the procedure’s success.
But what if you have bone loss in the area due to extended tooth loss or periodontal disease? Our experienced prosthodontist may recommend a bone grafting procedure to rebuild the area and provide a strong foundation for successful implant placement.
What Is the Implant-Supported Denture Process?
Dr. Blackmon will place titanium implants in your jawbone to support your new overdentures. As the area heals, your implants will integrate with the surrounding bone, a process known as osseointegration that can take a few months, helping provide a secure foundation for your new smile.
After the area heals, Dr. Blackmon and his team will create custom overdentures from impressions of your mouth and attach them to your implants. Your new implant-supported restorations will look, feel, and function like natural teeth, helping restore the function and appearance of your smile.
Implant-Supported Dentures Near Me in Ponte Vedra, FL
If you are ready to learn more about restoring your smile with an implant-supported denture, Dr. Blackmon and his patient-centered team at Guided Smiles Prosthodontics & Implant Center are here for you. We use the latest technology and techniques to deliver superior implant restorations that closely mimic the appearance and function of natural teeth. Call us at 904-395-5501 or schedule an appointment online today.