Dentures or Dental Implants: What’s Right For Me?

Missing teeth is among the most common dental health concerns for people around the world. Besides distorting your appearance, the missing often proves detrimental to long term oral health and cause the surrounding healthier teeth to shift and become crooked too. Dentures or Dental implants? Which will solve the problem? It’s a hard decision to make. It’s entirely upon you to decide which option is the right one for you.

Among the different alternatives, dentures and dental implants are perhaps the most popular. Let’s examine the pros and cons of both these options:

The Pros and Cons of Dentures

Dentures are basically false teeth that are designed to appear as close to natural teeth as possible. They are fixed to the mouthpiece, carefully attached to the gums. It takes some time before you can get comfortable with dentures.

Consuming softer meals and spending a few weeks practicing speaking is helpful. Using dentures is a promising solution for those with unhealthy gums or a weak jaw. However, they may shift if they are not properly fitted which usually happens when they are worn for too long a time, resulting in pain.

Moreover, if the partial set of dentures is not well-positioned, it may cause the healthy teeth on either side to suffer from tooth decay and adversely affect the gums. Nonetheless, the quality of dentures has dramatically improved over the years and they are now stronger and appear more natural than ever before.

Yet, if your doctor suggests wearing dentures, you should know exactly why you should use them, keeping in view the damage it can cause to healthier teeth. This can be an important factor in choosing Dentures or Dental Implants.

Pros and Cons of Dental Implants

Dental implants are directly positioned as anchors in patient’s jawbone. As opposed to dentures which are not attached to anything in the mouth and simply rest on the jawbone, dental implants are attached to gum roots in the mouth.

They may function as an alternative to wearing dentures or provide foundational support to dentures. In the latter case, these implants create a firm attachment between the removable denture and the jawbone.

Dental implants can literally last for decades if you maintain them and pay regular visits to your dentist. Unlike dentures, which are placed as a set, dental implants may also be used as a replacement for only one or two teeth, making them a more reasonable treatment option.

Since they are properly fixed, no shifts in implants occur, posing no threat to surrounding teeth. Furthermore, they appear more natural and comfortable as compared to dentures. Discussing with your dentist whether you will use Dentures or Dental implants, how many teeth are compromised will help you and your dentist determine which is best for you.

On the other hand, dental implants are only suited to patients with healthy jaws and gums. Unfortunately, they are significantly more expensive, and hence, most insurance plans wouldn’t cover the entire cost.

Conclusion

To sum it up, when considering the question: Dentures or Dental implants? Using dental implants is apparently a healthier option than wearing dentures. They offer a lifelong solution to overcoming your oral health problem, but solely for those with healthier jaws and gums. Although dental implants are safer and more durable, they can be expensive. Hence, if dental implants suit you, check whether your insurance coverage caters to it to avoid a huge bill.