I have a denture and I am especially struggling with the upper denture. The plate on my upper palette hurts and it makes me gag quite a bit. Is there such a thing as a soft denture? I think that would make things easier to tolerate.
Daisy
Dear Daisy,
I’m sorry you are struggling with your dentures. You are not alone in that, in all honesty. While there isn’t such a thing as a soft denture, there are soft linings. Unfortunately, this will not help with the situation you are facing. They can give some patients who have a bony ridge some gentle relief. However, they are more expensive and wear out more quickly. Additionally, the line won’t do anything about the palette issues.
I have often found patients with a strong gag reflex do better with implant overdentures than with removable dentures. These take your denture and anchor it to four to six dental implants. Because it is anchored to the implants, there is no need for the dental plate.
I’m going to suggest you get them on your bottom arch as well. It’s actually more important to have implants on the bottom than the top. This is because while the top is held in by suction, the bottom simply rests on your lower jaw bone. Here is the problem with that. When your teeth were removed for dentures, your body recognized that. In an effort to be as efficient as possible with your body’s resources, it begins to resorb the minerals in your jawbone in order to use them elsewhere.
The longer you are in removable dentures, the more your jawbone shrinks. Eventually, there won’t be enough jawbone for you to keep your dentures in place. This is known as facial collapse. Having the implants placed serves as prosthetic tooth roots, helping your body to realize the jawbone is still necessary to keep them in place.
This blog is brought to you by Hilton Head Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Bonnie Rothwell.