At present, dentures (technical term called denture) can be broadly divided into two categories: fixed and movable. Fixed dentures are dentures that are worn in the patient’s mouth and cannot be removed by the patient. Fixed dentures are mostly the same size as real teeth, comfortable, beautiful, easy, and good for eating. But fixed dentures compared to movable dentures, more expensive, some cycles are longer, and its indications are not as extensive as movable dentures. The movable denture is worn into the patient’s mouth, the patient needs to take off every day to brush and clean a class of dentures, in general, the movable denture and full denture can be classified as such.
The movable denture has a wide range of adaptations, almost any missing teeth can be set, but because of the abutment, its foreign body feeling, poor eating effect, easy to loose unstable, uncomfortable to wear, and if the metal ring retention, sometimes affect the aesthetics. However, the cost of removable dentures is relatively low, generally do not damage the remaining natural teeth, and easy to clean. The following is a specific introduction to the more common types of dentures in the current dental clinic.
1, dental implants.
Dental implants are currently the most advanced technology in the field of restorative dentistry, which has a transformative significance and has a profound impact on the medical behavior and model of dentistry, and is described as the “third set of teeth” in addition to the milk teeth and permanent teeth.
Dental implant is a restorative method in which a pure titanium implant is surgically placed in the patient’s alveolar bone to form an artificial tooth root, and then a crown is placed on top of the implant. It is suitable for the loss of single teeth, multiple teeth and full mouth teeth in the oral cavity. Traditional fixed and movable restorations rely on other natural teeth to achieve the retention of the prosthesis, while dental implants have artificial roots, similar to natural teeth support and bionic advantages, which do not require the removal of teeth on both sides of the missing teeth like fixed teeth;
At the same time, it has the advantages of aesthetics, naturalness, comfort, and good recovery of chewing function, which makes the patient psychologically think that it is equivalent to growing new teeth, which is very helpful to improve the patient’s quality of life and build self-confidence in interaction.
The selection of patients for dental implants is relatively strict. Patients should be in good health and free from systemic diseases, in addition, the local bone volume and quality of the oral cavity should meet the requirements. In addition, it is relatively long treatment period, the cost is expensive compared to other restorative methods, and requires good cooperation between the patient and the doctor to achieve good results.
2.All-porcelain teeth.
All-ceramic teeth are artificial crowns made of ceramic materials. It is suitable for tooth crown defects, or tooth discoloration, fluorosis, tetracycline teeth. Because the color and optical properties of all-porcelain teeth are very similar to natural teeth, its aesthetic effect is the best, especially for patients with unattractive teeth, want to improve the appearance of teeth, color and other situations, the restoration can achieve the effect of falseness. There are many types of all-porcelain teeth according to different materials, such as cast porcelain teeth, zirconia all-porcelain teeth, etc.
3, porcelain teeth.
Porcelain teeth is a widely carried out restoration technology, it is aesthetically pleasing, stable color, high strength, popular with patients. Such as ordinary porcelain teeth, titanium porcelain teeth, gold porcelain teeth, etc. The difference between porcelain teeth and all-porcelain teeth is that porcelain teeth have a metal base layer inside, that is, porcelain teeth are composed of two parts: metal and porcelain; while all-porcelain teeth have only one component of porcelain. In addition, the aesthetic effect of porcelain teeth is worse than all-porcelain teeth.
4. Pile core crown.
Clinically, if the tooth is bad for various reasons, only a small part of the crown remains, or the crown is all gone, only the root remains, such cases are called residual root and crown, then it is necessary to use the pile crown to repair. In general, the restoration of root and crown remnants is usually more difficult due to the conditions. The treatment procedure is: the affected tooth is first treated with a complete root canal to eliminate root inflammation, and then a pile core is made in the root canal, such as metal pile core, fiber pile and resin core;
Then a porcelain crown or all-ceramic crown is made to repair the residual root and crown, effectively protecting the patient’s tooth, eliminating the pain of tooth extraction, and restoring the beauty of the denture and cosmetic.
5.Sleeve crown denture.
Periodontal disease currently has a very high incidence in China, periodontal disease accompanied by tooth loss is very common in the elderly, which often requires the use of movable denture repair, but due to the presence of periodontal disease in real teeth, the denture is often very poor and uncomfortable. A socket crown denture is the best option in this case.
The sleeve crown denture has many advantages, its use of internal and external crown retention, eliminates the retaining ring, does not show metal, good aesthetics; feels comfortable and less foreign body; it connects all the abutment teeth together to form a periodontal splint, which plays a therapeutic role in periodontal disease. This restores the missing teeth and makes the loose periodontal disease affected teeth less loose, effectively protecting the remaining natural teeth, killing two birds with one stone; the socket crown also improves the bite relationship between the patient’s upper and lower teeth. In addition, the effect of sleeve crown denture is better than conventional removable denture when it is used for restoration of most missing teeth in the mouth.
6.General complete denture.
In addition to the application of dental implants for restoration of missing teeth, the majority of patients still use ordinary complete dentures to repair.
7.Removable partial denture.
Widely used in various forms of tooth loss restoration. It is the use of natural teeth, mucosa and bone tissue under the abutment for support, relying on the retention of the denture and the abutment for retention, the use of artificial teeth to restore the form and function of the missing teeth, the use of the abutment to restore the defective alveolar ridge and soft tissue, the patient can remove a prosthesis, also known as movable denture.
Its advantages are: wide range of application, can be applied to all types of dental defects; abutments require less abrasion of dental tissue, can restore soft and hard tissue defects, simple fabrication, easy to repair after damage, easy to wash and brush to maintain oral hygiene, low cost. The disadvantages are: large size of the abutment, obvious foreign body sensation when first worn; poor stability, chewing efficiency is lower than fixed denture.
Removable partial denture has a wide range of adaptations and can be used in the following cases.
(1) All kinds of dental defects, especially free defects.
(2) Missing teeth with jaw bone and soft tissue defects.
(3) Need to elevate the vertical distance while restoring missing teeth.
(4) Removable denture-type splints.
(5) Patients with cleft palate who need to close the cleft with a palatal guard.
(6) Patients who cannot tolerate the need for abrasion of dental tissue for the fabrication of fixed prostheses.
Removable partial dentures are not applicable in the following cases.
(1) The height of the abutment teeth is too low and the teeth are not recessed.
(2) Small gaps in missing teeth without restorative space.
(3) Allergy to plastics.
(4) Those who cannot tolerate the foreign body sensation of plastic.
(5) Patients with mental illness.