I got a complete set of dentures, but they do not cover the area where my wisdom teeth used to be. Is that standard? My dentist seemed to imply that this was normal, but I feel like I am chewing on my gums. Is there a way to cover them? If not, is there something I can put there to help with this?
Steven
Dear Steven,
The dentures should actually cover that area, as well as go a little past it to a bit on the retromolar pad. You don’t want to cover too much of the pad because it will interfere with the rest of the denture. If you’ve already paid for it, your dentist probably isn’t too keen on fixing it because it means redoing the denture. Another possibility is that he doesn’t quite understand the procedure. There are a lot of steps to creating a quality denture. Here is an instructional link that may help if the problem is that he isn’t sure what to do.
Before you talk to him about it, I want to make sure that the long term consequences of dentures were explained to you because now would be the time to make any changes. When your teeth are removed, your body recognizes that there are no longer any teeth in your jaw to support. As a result, it begins to resorb the minerals in your jawbone in order to use them elsewhere in your body where it perceives those minerals will be more useful to you.
While this is remarkably efficient, it has the unfortunate side effect of slowly shrinking your jawbone as a result. After ten or so years, you will no longer have enough of your jawbone left to support your denture. In dental circles, this is known as facial collapse. The way to prevent this is with what is known as implant supported dentures, sometimes called implant overdentures. With this procedure, you place about four to six dental implants in your arch and then, after a period of time for the bone to integrate with the implants, you anchor the dentures to them. Your body interprets the implants as teeth roots. As a result it leaves the minerals in your jawbone in place, which means you won’t lose any of your bone structure. It’s the closest thing to having healthy teeth in your mouth again.
This blog is brought to you by Libertyville Dentist Dr. David Potts.