Synonyms
Full denture, total denture, 28er, “The Third
Introduction
From a certain age on, many people are faced with the question of which prosthetic tooth replacement is best in case of complete tooth loss. Either one can replace all the teeth in the lower jaw with dental implants, which is a major and costly surgical procedure. In most cases, patients can have total dentures made of plastic. A dental prosthesis in the lower jaw ensures chewing and speech function and also achieves an attractive result from an aesthetic point of view.
Advantages and disadvantages of a total mandibular prosthesis
Dentures offer the patient several advantages. For example, they are not as expensive and are also supported by health insurance. It can be made without bone augmentation or other pre-treatments and later extensions, improvements or additions are easy to handle.
The disadvantage is, however, that a prosthesis does not give you the same chewing performance as a fixed denture. In addition, there can be problems with the denture hold, which occurs more often, especially in the lower jaw. The lower jaw does not offer the same large contact surface as the upper jaw for a complete denture, so that the hold in the lower jaw is usually only caused by the surrounding tissue, such as the muscles, less by the suction effect, as it occurs with the upper palatal plate.
Fabrication of a total prosthesis
The total prosthesis should be externally indistinguishable from a natural denture as soon as it is placed in the patient’s mouth. Whether the patient smiles, talks or eats, the denture should simulate normal gums and natural teeth as much as possible. Until then, however, it is a complex and lengthy manufacturing process, which also requires a lot of time in the dental laboratory to produce the prosthesis.
As a rule, the prosthesis is completely made of plastic. Both the gums and the teeth are made of plastic. This makes it possible to use any kind of tooth color and shape and also to make the gums natural and pink.
Each patient can thus be given an individual prosthesis to match the rest of his or her appearance. A tall, slim man gets different teeth than a smaller woman, for example. Several impressions are taken at the dentist’s office, which are then sent to the dental laboratory.
The dental technician also receives all the important information regarding lip fullness, smile line or midline. There the models are cast in plaster and are used for the further production of the dental prosthesis. The lower jaw prosthesis is first set up in wax.
The teeth are placed in the wax in such a way that they correspond to the natural dentition and chewing movements can be carried out so that the patient can later move the jaw to the right, left, front or back without any problems. If this is correct, more wax is applied and the gums are modelled. Then the wax prosthesis is tried on in the patient’s mouth.
The dentist uses this to check whether the set-up, tooth shape and color match the patient and whether all movements can be carried out and good chewing function can be guaranteed. In the next step, the wax model is transferred to plastic, the finished end product. Various plastics and manufacturing processes are used.
Thus, it can be stuffed cold or injected warm. Thus the wax disappears and is replaced by liquid plastic, which hardens. The teeth remain in their position.
In the following work step the denture is processed. During this process it is polished to a high gloss and excess residue is removed. The different movements are also checked again, so that it can be placed in the patient’s mouth at the end.
Modern plastics are already so far developed that they are no longer harmful to the body. Nevertheless, incompatibilities can occur. Pressure points on the patient can be removed and the functions and aesthetics can be checked.
