It’s tough dealing with missing teeth throughout your day. Simple tasks like eating and even speaking can be difficult. You may have noticed your face is having a more sunken appearance and your jaw often feels weak. When it comes to tooth-replacement options, your dentist in Bartlesville doesn’t want to leave you hanging to dry.
Dentures and dental implants are both ideal for replacing teeth, but couldn’t be more different in terms of production and treatment method. Your dentist wants to make that decision as easy as possible. After all, the highest priority is improving your quality of life.
What’s the Difference Between Dentures and Dental Implants?
Dentures are a prosthetic device that replace missing teeth and are supported by surrounding soft and hard tissues in the mouth. Typically, dentures are designed to be removable and cleaned outside of the mouth. They can be made in either full or partial forms and replace either entire rows of teeth or isolated areas.
Dental implants are titanium posts designed to act as a prosthetic tooth root. Implants physically bond to your jaw bone via a process known as osseointegration, which allows your jaw to hold it in place. After the implant heals, a crown is then placed on top, taking the place of your missing tooth. These are not removable and are meant to be treated like natural teeth. Whether you decide these over dentures truly depends on the benefits you’re looking for.
Who Should Get Dental Implants?
If are looking for the most effective long-term solution for tooth replacement that is also cost-efficient, dental implants in Bartlesville are the way to go. With an incredibly high success rate across the board and a tooth that fits into your jaw stronger than natural teeth, dental implants are hard to beat.
Patients who are willing to commit to the several-month-long healing process and the high cost associated with dental implants will be highly satisfied with the result. Thanks to their durability, they are likely to last anywhere from several decades to a lifetime; the chances of needing a replacement are incredibly low. With that being said, it’s important to know the benefits dentures provide patients as well.
Are Dentures Right for Me?
Dentures have a very low up-front cost because they are incredibly common for dentists to produce. The materials are cheap and readily available; therefore, your replacement teeth can be made very quickly.
Dentures are also ideal for patients trying to replace several teeth at once. Multiple teeth and even entire dental arches can be replaced in one fell swoop, making the overall tooth replacement cheaper to begin with. Fortunately, dentures have been around for centuries, so they’ve had a lot of time to look more natural over the years and provide comfort that didn’t exist before.
Still not sure which replacement option is right for you? To learn more about dental implants and dentures in Bartlesville, schedule a consultation with your dentist today!
About the Author
Dr. Luke Lumpkin received his undergraduate degree in health sciences from Southwestern Oklahoma State University. He then went on to earn his Doctor of Dental Surgery from the University of Oklahoma College of Dentistry. With over a decade of experience practicing dentistry, he’s fully capable of providing patients with the best treatments for replacing teeth to date. To learn more about his practice, contact him at (918) 336-6777 or visit his website.