I have dentures and I think they should go further back than they do. As they are placed now, they do not cover where my wisdom teeth used to be. It’s made it rather uncomfortable for me. My dentist thinks I am overreacting. At this point, I just want to know if this is normal placement and I just need to adjust.
Michael
Dear Michael,
While it is true that dentures will never be completely comfortable, this is not a discomfort that should come with your dentures. When dentures are made and fitted, they should actually cover the area where the wisdom teeth used to. In fact, they should go a little past that to the retromolar pad. It usually cannot cover the entire retromolar pad without causing some problems with the opposite denture, but it can certainly cover the wisdom teeth areas.
My guess is that your dentist does not want to fix that portion because it means that he would have to start over on the whole denture. If you’ve already paid for it then you probably don’t have much leverage. You could tell him that you’ve spoken with another dentist and have learned that it should cover your wisdom teeth. Hopefully, he’ll care enough to re-do it properly.
I don’t know how much your dentist told you about the problems that come with dentures, but I did want to make sure you were made aware of the dangers of long term wear when it comes to completely removable dentures. When your teeth were removed, it signals to your body that there are no longer any roots of your teeth in your jawbone. Your body interprets that as no longer needing to support anything in your jawbone. In order to use those resources wisely, it begins to resorb the minerals in your jawbone in order to use them elsewhere in your body. While remarkably efficient, it does have the unfortunate side effect of shrinking your jawbone. In about ten or more years, you will no longer have enough jawbone left to retain your dentures. This is known as facial collapse.
The best way to prevent this is to have dental implants placed in order to anchor the dentures to your jawbone. This is known as fixed implant dentures, sometimes called implant overdentures. The implants are prosthetic tooth roots, which signals to your body that your jawbone needs those minerals in order to retain your teeth. This means it will keep your jawbone whole and prevent facial collapse.
This blog is brought to you by Baton Rouge Dentist Dr. Steven Collins.