6 Reasons Why Dentures Aren’t the Answer to Your Dental Problems

Many people who experience tooth loss opt to replace missing teeth with full or partial dentures. However, while this method is the least expensive option available, it comes with numerous disadvantages.

For this reason, a growing number of people are choosing dental implants to deal with tooth loss. Here are six reasons why dentures aren’t the answer to your dental problems and how implants are superior.

Dentures Are High Maintenance

Dentures require considerable effort to keep clean, going well beyond a typical oral care routine. They must be scrubbed thoroughly each day to remove bacteria and left to soak in a special solution overnight. Furthermore, dentures are made from plastic and can easily become scratched. This allows bacteria to collect in the scratches, which can lead to foul odors, gum infections and stains. On top of it all, dentures must be handled with great care. If they are dropped onto a hard surface, they’re likely to break, requiring you to have a new set made.

Dental implants are seated firmly into your jawbone like real teeth. This means that you only have to care for them as you would your natural teeth with regular brushing and flossing. Dental implants are also more resistant to stains and scratches, much like real teeth. Furthermore, because implants aren’t removable, there is no chance of dropping them and having them break.

Dentures Are Inconvenient

Aside from the rigorous care requirements of dentures, simply wearing them can be highly inconvenient. You must use sticky, cumbersome denture pastes to get them to adhere to your gums. Despite this, dentures can fail to stay in place while you’re eating or speaking, resulting in potentially embarrassing situations.

In addition, there will still be many foods you can’t enjoy with dentures, such as corn on the cob, nuts, raw vegetables, steak and other hard or tough foods. These are difficult to bite or chew, and they can damage your dentures or cause gum irritation. Chewy or sticky foods, like taffy and gum, must also be avoided as they can become stuck in your dentures or pull them out of place. Dental implants, on the other hand, don’t come with any of these limitations.

Dentures May Cause Jawbone Deterioration

One of the biggest problems with dentures is that prolonged use allows the jawbone to deteriorate and shrink. This is because there are no longer tooth roots in the jaw to support it and provide the necessary stimulation for good bone health. As a result, people who have had dentures for many years often develop a “sunken” appearance in their cheeks and around their lips.

Dental implants consist of titanium posts that are embedded into the jawbone, which serve as surrogate roots to support the jaw and transfer stimulation during eating or speaking. This effectively prevents bone deterioration.

Dentures Aren’t Always Comfortable

Another problem with dentures is that they commonly cause sore spots on the gums. This is often because the dentures fit poorly, but even the best-fitting dentures can shift and wiggle during use, causing gum irritation through excessive friction. Furthermore, the fit of the dentures only becomes worse as your jawbone deteriorates. There is no such issue with dental implants because they’re permanently fixed in place.

Dentures May Increase the Risk of Gum Disease

Food particles can become stuck in the denture paste and even under the dentures themselves, allowing the delicate gum tissue to be exposed to harmful bacteria for prolonged periods. This serves to increase the likelihood of developing gum diseases or infections, and the sores caused by friction during shifting only makes this worse. With dental implants, however, the risk of developing gum disease is very low as long as you follow a proper oral hygiene regimen.

Dentures Can Be Difficult to Adjust

Many people who get dentures find that they have considerable difficulty adjusting to them. Speaking and eating with dentures requires practice to get used to, they limit your food options, they cause discomfort and they’re a major hassle to care for. They can even interfere with your ability to taste foods, which is something many people never get used to.

Dental implants, on the other hand, only require some time to allow your gums to heal from the implant procedure, and then you’re ready to use them just like real teeth.