Removable Replacements

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.