Ooops… not a great denture…

I visited a friend of mine who is a dental technician when I saw one of the dentures being worked on. I couldn’t help but comment on the unattractive design of the denture, which was not driven by the anatomy of the patient’s mouth (a dental technician works for the dental providers and follows their directions, so he or she has no influence on the cosmetic aspects of the denture – the provider works with the patients and makes those design decisions).

The upper cast shows the existing denture made a while ago; now the patient is having the lower immediate denture made. The occlusion line (bite) is highly distorted on the upper arch (the transition between the front and the back teeth should be smoother). Sometimes the natural teeth dictate the design, but in this case, on the upper arch was an existing denture which could be altered; for the fraction of the price of the new denture, back teeth could be replaced and re-set correcting the occlusion, and the new, lower denture would then follow the correct occlusion. The result would not only look much better in the patient’s mouth, but also function better.

In my practice I make sure that every possible solution is explored in order to achieve the best results for the patient – cosmetic and functional.