If you’ve worn or investigated wearing dentures, you probably know about the problems associated with them. You may even know that implant overdentures or implant-supported dentures can alleviate these problems. But you may not have heard that implant overdentures can be supported by as few as two dental implants, making them more affordable while still offering a better experience than dentures alone.
How Do Weย Make Dental Implants Moreย Affordable?
Dr. Dennis can make dental implants truly affordable by anchoring dentures with just two implants. Even though the dentures will still moveย up and down a bit, they provide much more eating efficiency than traditional dentures, which are held in place with suction on the top, and with the tongue and cheeks on the bottom. This also means that the entire palate does not need to be covered, leading toย easier enunciation when speaking and a better eating experience, because the taste buds in the palate will remain uncovered.
Why You Want Dental Implants
Dental implants also prevent the often-embarrassing slippage that can occur with traditional dentures. And they prevent the condition called facial collapse that results from having no tooth roots to anchor your jawbone. When you lose a tooth, your body immediately responds by beginning to absorb the minerals that once supported your tooth root.
And if you are missing most or all of your teeth, this absorption will lead to facial collapse within as little as ten or twenty years. Facial collapse will cause a shrunken appearance, but more importantly, it can have serious health consequences. When there is not enough jawbone left to support dentures, people are often unable to eat anything but soft foods.
Dental implants and implant-supported dentures prevent facial collapse because the body will not absorb the minerals near them. This is because they replace the tooth root with a titanium root form that is surgically implanted in the jaw. As it heals, the body deposits more bone-creating minerals around the root form through a process called osseointegration. This makes the root form a part of the jaw.
Finally, these affordable dental implants use snaps instead of screws because the dentures will still move up and down a bit, which would exert too much torque on screws. The snaps allow for just the right amount of movement.
Beware of Cheap Materials and Shortcuts
When you are entrusting your health to a dentist, it’s always important to seek out one who has invested the time and money in the advanced postgraduate training necessary to become fully qualified. You may see lots of advertisements for cheap dental implants, but some dentists save money by using low-quality implant materials, which can lead to their failure. Dr. Dennis has pursued the requisite training through thousands of hours of continuing education since she went into practice in 1982, and she uses only high-quality materials.
Learn more about implant-supported dentures by reading our implant overdentures page. If you already know this is what you need and would like to move forward, you may call our office or request an appointment online.