Wearing poor – fitting or old dentures currently or needing dentures? Considering new ones? Well, what’s the difference between ones made conventionally and digitally?
We’ve (thankfully) come a long way since I started making dentures 25 years ago. We’d first take preliminary impressions – prints or moulds – of your teeth, which were an unpleasant and somewhat messy way to start of the process. Patients would gag, the materials were uncomfortably cold or warm, and the patient would have to sit still for minutes, before the material was uncomfortably pulled out and checked. After this, the impressions would be sent off to the laboratory, following being disinfected in a solution, to allow custom – made trays to be made to take a second set of impressions – cue, even more discomfort and mess. These would then again be disinfected and sent back to the laboratory, both of which would cause distortion to what we had done, from the pulling of the material out the mouth, the solution to disinfect causing moisture uptake and expansion of the material and the bouncing around of the impressions in the post, all affecting the eventual fit of the denture.
Arrival at the laboratory would in turn result in more distortion, from further disinfection and the mould needing to be “poured -up” in plaster and being allowed to set, before the denture could even start to be constructed, thus, inevitably and negatively affecting the fit of the denture to the patient.
The two sets of impressions also resulted in a longer time to make the appliance and two rounds of patient discomfort. Also, issues with the fit of the denture were often not seen until the prosthesis had been completed.
The utilisation of digital technology means that, these initial stages have been completely revolutionised, creating a world of difference for the dentist and our patients!
Instead of impressions, patients are scanned slowly and carefully. This allows you to be far more comfortable, even allowing you rest breaks during the scan, as we methodically take digital images of the mouth. We, the dentists, can also look and check for discrepancies prior to the denture actually being sent to the laboratory and construction started.
Additionally, the scan only needs to be done once, and can be sent to the laboratory immediately, with an ability for them to communicate any accuracy issues with us, and becoming a second set of eyes. This, coupled with no disinfection and postage requirements/delays, further removes the creation of inaccuracies to the eventual fit of the dentures as mentioned above. So, in conclusion, all – in – all, a resulting denture which is made more cleanly, accurately, comfortably and rapidly!
Please do feel free to speak with us about the benefits of a digitally – made denture today. Couples with a variety of materials now to choose from – chrome, acrylic, flexible and others – we can help you select the best type for your mouth and individual requirements.
