What Are Immediate Dentures?
By Murad Rashid | Published on January 14, 2011 | 0 Comments
Immediate dentures are the prosthetic devices that patients wear in between the time when their teeth have come out and when their new, full dentures are ready to go in. According to Dr. Murad Rashid at the Dentist Place in Clearwater, Florida, it is common for a dentist to offer his patients immediate dentures to wear while the dental lab is finishing up the full set.
Essentially, Dr. Rashid says that an immediate denture is a denture that is made for someone who currently has teeth in his mouth, but does not want to go without teeth for an extended period of time after his natural teeth have been extracted. Immediate dentures can be fabricated extremely quickly, and are oftentimes given to a patient on the same day as his existing teeth are taken out. As a busy dentist, Dr. Rashid says that it’s important that he works with a dental lab that can create immediate dentures for his patients in very little time.
The downside of an immediate denture – and the reason why patients are rarely interested in wearing them for the long haul – is that they do not usually fit in place as well as full dentures. What patients sacrifice for quick turnaround time is a perfect fit, and Dr. Rashid says that it is rare that a patient’s immediate dentures will fit perfectly on the first try.
Even though immediate dentures may seem to fit perfectly at first, the reality is that a patient who has just had his teeth extracted is likely to be very swollen for the first few weeks. Therefore, an immediate denture that fits perfectly when the patient’s gums are swollen will seem loose once that swelling goes down.
Achieving a perfect fit is only really important when it comes to conventional dentures – which are the dentures that the patient can expect to wear in the years to come. Conventional dentures can take copious amounts of time to create. Dr. Rashid says that the amount of time that it takes to have a conventional denture fabricated depends on how busy the dental lab is and how complicated the specific structure is.
In general, it takes between three and four weeks for a conventional denture to be fabricated at the lab that Dr. Rashid’s office works with. As a dentist, he says that this turnaround time is exceptionally good. Creating dentures at a dental lab is tough work, explains Dr. Rashid, because the lab technicians have to essentially guess how patients’ gums are going to heal after their teeth have been extracted.
Most patients choose to purchase immediate dentures while they wait for their conventional dentures to be made simply because they cannot fathom the thought of going without teeth for any period of time. However, patients should be aware that immediate dentures are really only a temporary solution.
*Disclaimer: The information on this website is not intended to substitute for the medical expertise and advice of your healthcare provider. We encourage you to discuss any decisions about treatment or care with an appropriate healthcare provider.