Premium Denture Service
Alexandria Cosmetic Dentistry Serving Northern Virginia and Surrounding Areas
I consider all of the dentures I see around town and around the world and wonder if the dentists actually went to school to learn how to make them or if the school they went to did not even teach them the proper way to make a premium denture. If you have a denture there is one thing for certain and that is that it should look good, enhance your looks and even make you look younger than your years. There is practically nothing that cannot be done with a denture to enhance a person’s appearance. A denture should fit well too, be comfortable, you should be able to enunciate words, speak well and eat and chew comfortably and without pain.
There is an art and a science to making a fine denture that looks good, works well and is comfortable. Like everything in life, there are no shortcuts to doing something well and doing something the right way.
Below are the steps to making a good denture:
1. An examination and a good final impression, this impression must be perfect, it must capture the edges of your tissues and all of the functional contours.
2. Jaw relations: This step involves the lab making a wax rim that looks like a denture with no teeth. This rim is used to make a measurement that will determine how open your mouth will be with you new teeth and helps determine the placement of the teeth in the denture. Allow me to explain. With the denture in your mouth the teeth need to be a certain distance apart, this distance is determined by esthetics and function. Imagine if you would a dot placed on the tip of your nose and one on the tip of your chin. The distance between these two dots is important. if too long the teeth could be too long, the lips may not cover the teeth properly, function and speech are impaired. If the distance is too short the mouth appears to be over-closed, the lips hang over one another, the corners of the mouth collect spittle of saliva and can develop a fungal infection called angular kelosis that must be treated with anti fungal medicines and steroids. In both cases the esthetics is severely compromised.
3. Tooth Selection: This step is very critical and requires a well trained eye, care skill and judgment. It also requires great patience. I like to use historical photographs as a starting point and often will ask patients what they particularly like about certain teeth shapes and displays. We keep a large library of nice teeth that are different shapes and sizes for us to look at together. Of course the teeth have to fill up a certain amount of space and must function properly against each other. Sometimes we are guided by the patient who shares with us their likes and dislikes as well as family traits about their teeth they might like to reproduce. We carefully select shades to go with your coloring, your eyes and hair as well as complexion. Lighter shades are becoming more popular and there are still a lot to choose from, my team and I will help you make the choice if you would like, we are here to serve you and to help you achieve your goals of health and confidence.
Teeth are of the highest quality and look absolutely beautiful and natural. Once we have selected a shape and color they are placed in the wax denture by our laboratory according to our instructions. When you return for this visit we try in the wax denture with the teeth for you to see for the very first time! This is a very exciting visit and we suggest you bring your significant other, a friend or family member to help you decide on how you new denture looks!
4. Delivery: Unlike the maternity ward this delivery is for your new denture, it is almost as exciting though! You new denture has now been processed and is ready to go home with you after careful adjustments to your bite and the inside to assure a good fit. We like to do most of our adjustment during this visit but reserve another appointment for fine tuning the bite and the inside of your new denture.
In closing I would like to say that I enjoy making dentures a great deal and that is probably why we make many of them. We love the appointments with our denture patients because they are very relaxed and very one on one. It gives us the opportunity to get to know each other very well and build a nice relationship. We reserve the proper amount of time for all of your denture appointments and never ever skip important steps! If you have more questions about a new denture or how dental implants are used to retain upper and lower dentures call us now and we will help you. Call us at 703-299-9899
Call 703.299.9899 or email us today.
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