I had a denture done, but have problems from the beginning. He did an impression, a wax bite, and two wax try-ins. I noticed on the second try-in that the denture wasn’t staying in, which alarmed me. I mentioned it to the dentist who said that is not a problem because that try in was about the teeth and nothing else. But, guess what? When the final denture was done it wouldn’t stay in. There was no suction. My dentist said to give it a week in order for my gums to adjust to the denture. After a week, there was no change. I went back to see my dentist. He said that there was probably an issue with the bite. He ground down some of the back teeth, gave me some fixodent, and told me to give it yet another week for my gums to adjust. As I was checking out, I heard him whispering something to his assistant about doing something called a reline if this doesn’t work. Should I trust him and do this if that is where we end up?
Kevin
Dear Kevin,
I’ll say up front that I’m not impressed. Telling you that your gums will adjust is bogus and a stalling tactic. However, this can be fixed. First, the good news. A reline should be a good solution for your situation if done right. Here is where I think your dentist went wrong and you will want to prevent that with the reline as well.
Going strictly from what you described, it sounds like your dentist took some shortcuts. While this is common practice for many dentists that could work out, in your case it obviously didn’t. The reasons that so many dentists take a short cut on these is because there is massive competition in the denture market. If they can save some money in order to lower their prices, it may get them an edge on that competition.
In order to get the best impression, your dentist would want to do a two-step impression. First, is border molding. This would use a heavier impression material which should register the denture border. This is important because the border is what creates the suction you need in order to keep the denture in. It has to press into the tissue a bit to create that suction, so a heavier material is better for that.
The second step is a wash, which is a lighter a impression material used to fill up the interior of the impression. This will register all the soft tissue.
Dentists that try to save time and money will use a medium impression material in order to do both at once. Honestly, much of the time it creates and adequate denture. Obviously not always.
The reline should get a better impression because it will get closer to accurate. Hopefully, your dentist has not already taken that impression. In that case, ask him to do the two step impression and not rely on the medium bodied one step process.
Second, I also want to recommend that you look into facial collapse, which is a consequence of long-term use of removable dentures. As you are making a change anyway, this would be the time to understand all of your options.
This blog is brought to you by Kalamazoo Dentist Dr. Susan Dennis.
If getting them on both arches is impossible, there is another potential solution for the upper denture. Upper dentures typically go all the way over the hard palate to the vibrating line of the soft palate. This can be a cause for gagging. 
