Dentures are a common solution for patients who are missing adult, permanent teeth in the smiles. But what are signs that you need them, and what types can you choose from? Dr. Kenneth Egger and his team in Mount Pleasant, MI, take the time to educate individuals on the many options available to them.

What are some signs that you might need dentures?

• Difficulty chewing or biting food
• Noticeable changes in your bite or jaw alignment
• Missing teeth or excessive tooth decay
• Regularly experiencing discomfort or pain in the mouth
• Noticeable changes in facial structure, such as sunken cheeks
• Increased irritation or soreness of the gums
• Frequent foul breath or a bad taste in the mouth

If you notice any of the above issues, it may be time to talk to Dr. Kenneth Egger and his team in Mount Pleasant, MI, about the benefits of dentures. Whether you use partial dentures or full dentures, he can assist in finding the right solution for your unique dental needs.

What types of dentures are available?

There are three primary types of dentures that might be considered after tooth loss or extractions. They include:

• Partial dentures. A partial denture replaces one or several teeth in the arch using an acrylic and metal appliance and false teeth that slide into place. The remaining teeth hold the partial in place and provide it stability to function properly.
• Full dentures. In some instances, patients who choose full dentures may need to have any remaining teeth extracted to prepare the smile for this new appliance. These dentures replace all of the teeth in the dental arch for full restoration of the smile.
• Implant-retained dentures. Alternatively, if patients need to replace all the teeth in the smile, they may want to ask Dr. Kenneth Egger about the advantages of implant-retained dentures. These are dentures that are more conservative and are held in place with dental implants along the arch.

Which type of denture is right for me?

Dr. Kenneth Egger is here to assist you in finding the restoration that works best with your smile. If you are looking to replace one or more teeth with a restorative dentist, call the office today at 989-773-3560 to request a visit at his Mount Pleasant, MI, area practice.

Dr. Egger likes a good scare as much as the next person, and he’s a big fan of Halloween. And, no, he doesn’t give away tiny tubes of toothpaste to his trick or treaters in Mount Pleasant! 

But if you have a set of full dentures, there is one thing that can be kind of terrifying — a slipping denture when you’re eating or even when you’re talking to someone. That’s as scary (and embarrassing) as any Tales from the Crypt episode! 

Dr. Egger fits, places, and maintains both full and partial dentures for our patients. We talked about removable partial and full dentures in this month’s first blog. Dr. Egger firmly believes, no pun intended, in the firm bite supplied by dental implants. But he understands that most people can’t afford to replace a full arch of teeth with implants. For those patients, dentures are still probably the best option. 

However, if we combine the two, we can get the rock-solid anchoring of implants with the large-scale tooth replacement of dentures. These are implant-supported dentures, and we think they provide the security that is usually missing with traditional dentures. 

Dentures 

When all the teeth in the patient’s mouth need replacing, dentures can return full functionality. They allow normal speaking and eating and, of course, present a perfect smile to the public. 

Dentures are made from acrylic and porcelain and include upper and lower sets. And, while fitting dentures with the use of our modern panoramic camera is much more precise than it used to be, due to the nature of the gums dentures still can slip and move. What they need are anchor points. 

Adding implants for stability 

That’s where implants come in. Implants, by their very nature, provide the stability needed to keep dentures in place. Implants are basically titanium screws that are placed into the socket formerly occupied by the tooth root. The body then builds new bone and totally integrates the new implant. Once this process is complete, a post is attached to the implant and, in normal circumstances, an artificial tooth atop that post. 

But with implant-supported dentures, Dr. Egger simply attaches the full upper and lower arches of dentures to the implants, rather than placing a crown on top of them. The number of implants he uses depends on how much jawbone mass has been lost while your teeth have been missing. When teeth are missing for longer periods of time, the jawbone beneath them begins to deteriorate because it doesn’t get the stimulation from the tooth above. Usually, he recommends four implants on top and bottom for ultimate stability. 

Who needs the scare of a slipping denture? If you’re missing most of your teeth, or have poorly fitting dentures, call Dr. Egger at (989) 773-3560 let’s see how we can get you into implant-supported dentures.

Everyone in Michigan, whether a Red Wings fan or not, has seen a hockey player appear to have a full set of teeth in an interview. But then when watching a game on TV, the shot of the same player on the bench shows he’s missing a couple of his front teeth. And he didn’t just lose them with the last deflected slapshot from DeKeyser. 

What gives? 

Most likely the player has a removable prosthesis. 

Dr. Egger fits patients for all sorts of bridges and dentures, some of which are removable. Let’s get into it for this autumnal blog. 

What types of removable prostheses are there? 

There are two types of removable prostheses: 

•     Removable partial denture

A removable partial denture offers a cost-effective way to replace teeth utilizing a removable prosthesis. There are usually two ways to do these. Older methods would use the surrounding remaining teeth to anchor the removable partial denture, usually with metal clasps. The patient then clips the partial denture in and out. 

Thanks to improvements in dental lab technology and fitting, removable partials can also now be claspless. These have a precise fit and can be easily removed and replaced. 

•     Removable full denture

Everyone knows about removable full dentures. They’ve been the fodder for jokes in cartoons and elsewhere, usually when the person has the dentures out or when the dentures become lodged on an apple or something. Truth is that precisely fit dentures can return a world of food options, improved speech, and self-confidence to the wearer. Full dentures are supported by the soft and hard tissues of the oral cavity and rely on a certain amount of suction to lock into place. Full dentures are removed every night for cleaning. 

What if we anchor them? 

In a perfect world, none of our patients would have removable prostheses. Instead, any missing teeth would be replaced with dental implants. But for many patients, the cost of dental implants precludes this. In these cases, a happy middle ground comes by using implants to anchor the removable prosthesis. By using from two to four implants to act as anchors for full or partial dentures, the wearer has vastly improved comfort and functionality over conventional removable dentures. 

If you’re missing a few teeth, you don’t have to live your life working around the problem. Call Dr. Egger at (989) 773-3560 and schedule a consultation on your options for replacing those teeth.

As we mentioned in March’s first blog, there isn’t any shortage of people missing all of their teeth. The number was something like 35 million Americans.

Whoa.

In Mount Pleasant and the surrounding areas, Dr. Egger has helped many people who have lost all of their teeth (or who had to have them extracted due to serious decay) by fitting them with dentures. Dentures are the subject of many cartoons and stand-up comic jokes, but they are a great way for a person to regain his or her smile and be able to eat all sorts of foods again, all at an affordable price.

But what happens when they become stained after you’ve picked six quarts of raspberries (all the while eating two) or had a wine tasting challenge every night during COVID quarantine?! No worry. Dentures can be whitened back to their previous brightness. Here are a few tips from Dr. Egger.

They can stain

The acrylic resin used to make the artificial teeth in dentures is resistant to staining, but it can stain over time. The same foods and drinks that stain tooth enamel can stain your dentures. The difference is that you can take out your dentures and drop them in non-abrasive dental cleaner overnight and that will often do the trick. Try that with your stained natural teeth!

But stick with American Dental Association approved denture cleaners, and don’t follow the home treatments detailed on the Internet. Plus, when you brush your dentures every day, be sure to use a denture toothpaste. Regular toothpaste is too abrasive for dentures.

Dr. Egger can do it

If you’re still not getting your dentures as white as you’d like, why not have Dr. Egger and our team do it? We can polish the stains off your dentures and then polish them to make them look like new. And we can do so in just a few minutes.

Many of our denture patients have us professionally clean their dentures twice every year.

Can you prevent stains?

You could prevent staining your dentures by not drinking coffee, red wine, Coke or RC Cola, by not eating blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries…and dark chocolate. And don’t forget tomato sauce! Who wants to give up all of that great stuff? Instead, just do a better job at home after eating or drinking staining items. Every night, remove your dentures, rinse them to remove any debris or food particles, then gently brush them with a non-abrasive cleaner and a denture brush. When you eat or drink something that’s overly staining, give your mouth a quick rinse with some water afterwards and this can prevent much of the staining from happening.

If you’re missing all of your teeth, but haven’t done anything about it, we need to see you at Dr. Egger’s. Call us at (989) 773-3560 to schedule your appointment.

Dentures 101

In this month’s first blog, we talked about some of the pros and cons involved with replacing all or most of your teeth with dentures. For this second March blog, let’s get into this long-time solution for replacing teeth, and let’s cover Dr. Egger’s favorite modern improvement — supporting dentures with implants.

A little history

Dentures are nothing new. They’ve been around as long as people have been losing their teeth due to decay. Their first use is traced back to the 7^th century B.C. when the Etruscans made partial dentures out of human or animal teeth and tied them together with gold bands. The Romans made even better dentures. The Japanese invented wooden dentures in the 16^th century.

Surely the most famous denture wearer was George Washington, although he didn’t wear wooden dentures, as the wives’ tale claims. Instead Georgie’s chompers were made with ivory from hippos and elephants, gold rivets, spiral springs, and real human teeth.

If you have good teeth, you’ll be surprised to hear that one quarter of U.S people over 65 have lost most or all of their teeth! Even more surprisingly, many of those people have opted not to replace their missing teeth with dentures or a boatload of implants. Instead, they don’t eat many types of foods, have speech issues, and, most critically, lose bone mass in their jawbone leading to a collapse of their lower face.

But it doesn’t have to be that way — dentures, whether full or partial, can give you back a beautiful, functional smile. At Dr. Egger’s, we offer full dentures, partial dentures, and implant-retained dentures. Although fully replacing teeth with implants is preferable, dentures can surely be a cost-effective alternative.

The benefits of dentures

Dentures can:

• Improve your ability to chew and bite properly and make it easier to eat a healthy diet rich in crunchy fruits and vegetables.
• Help you look more youthful with the restoration of your gums, teeth, and jawbone.
• Improve your self-esteem. You can smile and laugh without feeling embarrassed about the way you look.
• Make it easier to communicate and speak clearly.

Partial or full?

This decision depends, of course, on if you have any remaining teeth. Partial dentures are preferred because we can use any remaining teeth as anchors. With partial dentures, crowns are put on top of the remaining natural teeth, serving as anchors for the artificial teeth in between. Partial dentures fill the spaces created by the missing teeth and also prevent the remaining teeth from moving into those open spaces. Partial dentures can be removable or permanent, depending on the number of remaining teeth.

Full dentures replace all of your teeth. To prepare for the full dentures, any remaining badly decayed teeth are removed. Instead of anchors, full dentures are held in place through pressure provided by the tongue and cheeks, and suction. Adhesive can be used to add stability. That’s why Dr. Egger spends a good deal of time getting the fit of your dentures exactly right.

Implants + dentures

A better solution, even if you’ve lost all of your teeth, is using dental implants to anchor your dentures. Implants are titanium posts that are inserted into the former tooth sockets. The jawbone is allowed to grow back around the implants, making them similar to natural tooth roots. The dentures attach to those implants, which are placed at various necessary support positions in the upper and lower jaw. Implant-supported dentures have several advantages:

• Dentures don’t move, rub, and cause irritation because they are anchored in place by the implants.
• The dentures don’t slip when speaking, biting, or chewing.
• Because they don’t slip, food debris doesn’t get stuck under the dentures while eating.
• The risk for bone loss is reduced, as implants maintain the normal downward pressure that stimulates the jawbone.
• Lower jaw dentures are more stable compared to traditional prosthetics.

Now you know everything to know about dentures. Question is, what are you going to do with your missing teeth? Call Dr. Egger at (989) 773-3560, and let’s discuss getting your smile back with partial or full dentures.

Although it’s easy to think of people with missing teeth as some rerun of Deliverance on TV, reality is that over 35 million Americans do not have any teeth, and 178 million are missing at least a single tooth. That’s as true in Mt. Pleasant as in North Georgia (where the movie was filmed).

People mainly lose their teeth due poor dental hygiene at home, poor nutrition, a lack of professional dental care, severe tooth decay, and accidents/trauma. But it’s not how they are lost that matters, it’s that they need to be either replaced or accounted for. Which option you choose can be dictated by the overall health of your mouth, just how many teeth are missing, your general health, and your finances.

Dr. Egger is a big fan of dental implants for replacing lost teeth, but they are not cheap, and the process takes months from start to finish. That’s why many people still choose to replace missing teeth with partial or full dentures.

What are the choices with dentures?

Dentures are removable appliances that can be partial (where teeth still remain) or full. The scenario is best if the patient still has at least a few natural teeth left; they will help keep the dentures in place and retain the jaw’s natural shape. Implant-supported dentures make it possible to have dentures that are permanently in place. This can still allow a patient who has lost all of his or her teeth to have the advantage of anchoring the dentures, only this time with dental implants instead of natural teeth.

Pros and cons of dentures

Here are the benefits and drawbacks of dentures as a tooth replacement option:

Pros

• Protect remaining teeth from further wear and tear
• Prevent facial muscles from sinking further and avoid bone loss in the process
• Cost-effective when compared with other tooth replacement options
• Improved self-esteem
• Improved chewing and nutrient absorption
• Improved speech

Cons

• Dentures are not fixed appliances, except if implant-anchored
• Dentures may potentially lead to gum problems if not properly cleaned and cared for
• Dentures take some time to get used to
• Dentures can break
• Dentures need to be refit periodically

Tired of being without your teeth? Call Dr. Egger at (989) 773-3560 and set up a consultation for the possible placement of dentures. Today’s dentures, coupled with Dr. Egger’s expertise, make for a far different experience than some older relative you may have heard about.

When You Need to Replace Lots of Teeth

Dentures have long been a staple of cartoon gags and magic shop counters (the windup variety). If your teeth are healthy, it’s easy to assume that “other people need dentures,” but that’s far from the case. Certainly the Centers for Disease Control would argue with that statement. Statistics from the CDC show that one quarter of all Americans over the age of 65 have lost all of their teeth.

This kind of tooth loss can affect a person in many ways. Of course, it’s difficult to eat a proper diet if chewing is next to impossible. Speaking is difficult. And it’s embarrassing, making a person avoid smiling or opening their mouth if possible. Plus, when a person is missing all of their teeth, the jawbone begins to erode and the body resorbs the bone matter. This leads to the eventual inward collapse of the lower face.

But dentures from Dr. Egger can give the patient back a much better quality of life.

Dentures can change a person’s life

Dr. Egger and his team can design and fit a set of partial or full dentures for you. Here are the benefits of having dentures:

• Restored ability to bite and chew a wide variety of foods. Think of all the fruits and vegetables you can enjoy again!
• A more youthful appearance. With dentures, your teeth, gums, and jawbone are restored to their original dimensions. And your facial structure doesn’t collapse.
• Better self-image. No longer will you avoid smiling or opening your mouth.
• Clearer speech. You don’t realize the part your teeth play in speech, but it is dramatic.

Types of dentures

Dr. Egger provides patients with either full or partial dentures, depending on their unique needs. Full dentures replace an entire set of missing teeth, upper, lower, or both. Partial dentures are usually used to fill a gap of three or more teeth where a bridge won’t provide enough support. Materials range from acrylic to flexible resin.

Dr. Egger prefers to add stability to his patients’ dentures by using dental implants as anchors. These are known as implant-supported dentures. Dr. Egger has extensive experience placing dental implants and is a big fan of using implants to stabilize dentures. For full sets of dentures, he usually places four implants per jaw to anchor the dentures.

Here are the advantages of implant-supported dentures:

• The implants hold the dentures in place, no irritation or rubbing.
• No slipping when talking or eating.
• Food can’t get under the dentures.
• The implants direct bite force energy down into the jawbone below, slowing the rate of bone resorption that happens due to missing teeth.
• Implants provide the best stability for lower jaw dentures.

If you’ve lost most or all of your teeth, you don’t need to suffer through eating a limited diet and being embarrassed by your smile. Call Dr. Egger at (989) 773-3560 and let’s talk about getting you into a great-fitting set of dentures.

A Menu of Dr. Egger’s Most Common Services

Whether it is with or without anxiety, patients are always focused on their procedure. Maybe it’s a routine cleaning; perhaps it’s the need to have a filling placed. To keep everyone up to date, here’s a list of our most common services, treatments, and procedures at Dr. Egger’s practice.

Oral health exams: X-rays, oral cancer screenings, along with a visual examination of the teeth, gums, and jaw are involved here. We look for signs of decay, disease, misalignment, spaces, and other issues.

Prophylactic cleanings: We remove minor plaque and tartar buildup to reduce the risk of gingivitis and cavity formation. Every six months is the right interval.

Gum disease intervention: To head off gum disease, Dr. Egger usually only needs to do some scaling of the teeth. This sounds serious but is just scraping off tartar below the gum line where it builds up and begins to cause gum irritation. For more advanced cases, he uses a diode laser to remove diseased tissue and remove bacteria, and Arestin to help with healing.

Fluoride treatments & dental sealants: Usually for children, but occasionally requested by adults, fluoride helps prevent tooth decay. We apply a topical gel twice a year. Sealants are long-term plastic filling applied to the deep grooves in the molars. It can last for decades.

Dental implants: Dr. Egger is a big fan of dental implants for tooth replacement. Why? Because once they are accepted by the jawbone, implants function and look just like natural teeth. Plus, they can last the remainder of the patient’s life.

Root canals: When decay reaches the inner pulp of the tooth, it’s time for a root canal. This cleans out the interior of the tooth, removing the infected tissue and nerves and replacing it with rubber-based substance. The tooth is then usually capped. Root canals save teeth from needing extraction.

Extractions: Pulling teeth. Dr. Egger doesn’t remove wisdom teeth, but most regular extractions can be handled in-house. 

Fillings & crowns: A cavity is merely an area of decay in a tooth. Usually, routine fillings address decay before it damages the interior of the tooth. You can opt for metal amalgam or composite fillings. Crowns are what used to be called caps because they are placed atop the damaged tooth to return strength and functionality.

Dentures: Dr. Egger designs and fits full or partial dentures to replace a group of teeth or all of a patient’s teeth. Today’s dentures fit better, are more comfortable, and are easier to manage than those of previous generations.

Is it time for your regular cleaning and exam? Call Dr. Egger at (989) 773-3560 to make your appointment.

A Dentures Primer

People have been trying to replace missing teeth for as long as we’ve cared. That probably doesn’t include our attractive caveman days. Toward that end, dentures are nothing new. Their first use is traced back to the 7^th century B.C. when the Etruscans made partial dentures out of human or animal teeth and tied them together with gold bands. The Romans made even better dentures. The Japanese invented wooden dentures in the 16^th century.

The most famous denture wearer in U.S. history has to be George Washington, although he didn’t wear wooden dentures, as the mythology maintains. Instead, Georgie’s chompers were made with ivory from hippos and elephants, gold rivets, spiral springs, and real human teeth.

Most people seriously underestimate just how many people either wear dentures or should. One-quarter of U.S people over 65 have lost most or all of their teeth! Many of these people choose not to replace their teeth, either with dentures or a bunch of implants. Instead, they eat soft foods, avoid smiling, and suffer through continuing bone loss in their jaws. This is because teeth stimulate the jawbone, as bite force energy is transferred down through the teeth into the jawbone beneath. This energy triggers a constant regeneration of new bone cells to keep the jawbone healthy.

Not replacing missing teeth is a silly proposition, really. That’s kind of like the Red Wings trading for yet another washed-up old-timer, rather than going all-in on youth. Dentures, whether full or partial, can give you back a beautiful, functional smile. Dr. Egger offers full dentures, partial dentures, and implant-supported dentures. Although fully replacing teeth with implants is preferable, dentures can surely be a cost-effective alternative.

Partial or full?

This decision depends, of course, on if you have any remaining teeth. Partial dentures are preferred because we can use any remaining teeth as anchors. With partial dentures, crowns are put on top of the remaining natural teeth, serving as anchors for the artificial teeth in between. Partial dentures fill the spaces created by the missing teeth and also prevent the remaining teeth from moving into those open spaces. Partial dentures can be removable or permanent, depending on the number of remaining teeth.

Full dentures replace all of your teeth. To prepare for the full dentures, any remaining badly decayed teeth are removed. Instead of anchors, full dentures are held in place through pressure provided by the tongue and cheeks, and suction. Adhesive can be used to add stability. That’s why Dr. Egger spends a good deal of time getting the fit of your dentures exactly right.

Implants + dentures

A better solution, even if you’ve lost all of your teeth, is using dental implants to anchor your dentures. Implants are titanium posts that are inserted into the former tooth sockets. The jawbone is allowed to grow back around the implants, making them similar to natural tooth roots. The dentures attach to those implants, which are placed at various necessary support positions in the upper and lower jaw. Implant-supported dentures have several advantages:

• Dentures don’t move, rub, and cause irritation because they are anchored in place by the implants.
• The dentures don’t slip when speaking, biting, or chewing.
• Because they don’t slip, food debris doesn’t get stuck under the dentures while eating.
• The risk for bone loss is reduced, as implants maintain the normal downward pressure that stimulates the jawbone.
• Lower jaw dentures are more stable compared to traditional prosthetics.

Dentures are a great way to get your smile back. Call Dr. Egger at (989) 773-3560 and set up a consultation.

You’d be surprised how many people have lost all of their teeth. The American Dental Association says that 35 million Americans have lost all of their teeth. If you’re one of those statistics, or if you’ve even lost many of your teeth, Dr. Egger can have dentures created to put the bite back in your life.

If you’ve been missing your teeth for a long time, you may have gotten accustomed to working around the loss. You probably avoid certain foods. You probably avoid smiling. You may have had to adjust certain speech patterns. Dentures can get you past these issues.

Why should I get dentures?

Whether Dr. Egger is designing full or partial dentures, your quality of life will improve. These are some of the positive changes you’ll get from dentures:

• You will have restored the ability to bite and chew a wide variety of foods. Crunchy foods and vegetables, a cornerstone of a healthy diet, can return to your menu.
• Improved self-confidence. You’ll be able to laugh and smile without worrying what people think about your missing teeth.
• A better facial profile. Dentures will return your teeth, gums, and underlying jawbone to more of their original dimensions. Without teeth, your jawbone tends to deteriorate, and dentures can stem this loss. Plus, your increased chewing ability will bring strength back to all of the muscles involved.
• Clearer speech. Having dentures will facilitate speaking and pronunciation of many vowels and consonants. No more slurring or whistling when you talk.

Types of dentures

When it comes to dentures, you choose between full and partial sets. Sometimes, you may have a few remaining teeth, but their condition is bad enough to merit extraction. In other cases, remaining teeth can stay, build partial dentures around them.

A full set of dentures replaces the entire set of teeth, either upper or lower. Partial dentures usually fill a gap of three or more missing teeth, where a bridge cannot provide enough support. These prosthetics are typically made of acrylic, but they can be placed atop a metal base for added strength. The flexible resin is also available now, which is more comfortable and can provide a very precise fit.

Dr. Egger also highly recommends implant-supported dentures. For these, anywhere from three to six dental implants are placed into the jawbone to anchor the full or partial dentures. These prevent the dentures from slipping and provide excellent stability. The dentures simply snap into the implants for the strong fit.

Interested in finally doing something about those missing teeth? Call Dr. Egger at 989-773-3560 and let’s discuss the options for dentures.