Adults

Young Adults - From Birth 31 to 50 years of age

IMPLANTS

This form of treatment provides the patient an opportunity to replace missing teeth utilizing titanium metal screw like cylinders embedded into the jaws in the region of the missing teeth either immediately after an extraction or?? a couple of months later.

The advantage of successful implant therapy is that the patient ends up with a fixed false tooth looking & feeling like a natural tooth without needing to use the neighboring teeth as is required for bridges.

OVERDENTURES

When only a few teeth??remain in the mouth it is possible to use these teeth to preserve the bone of the jaws used in supporting dentures by trimming them down to the level of the gums after root canal treatment. Dentures placed over such trimmed down teeth may gain additional support if additional devices like magnets or other 'attachments' are used.

SUBMUCOUS VITAL ROOT RETENTION

This is an interesting variation of the overdenture treatment where the remaining teeth are cut to a level below the gums so that the left over potions are submerged inside. These submerged roots help preserve the bone that supports dentures.

DENTURES

Dentures may be 'fixed' if teeth are present on either side of the space where teeth have been extracted. These teeth on either side serve as pillars for a 'bridge' to be made where the artificial replacement (one or more teeth) are suspended between the supports.

Removable dentures are ideally made of a combination of metal & plastic. The metal portion forms the foundation framework to which the plastic/acrylic portion consisting of white teeth & pink gums is attached. A cheaper option is one made entirely of plastic usually meant as a 'temporary transitional' denture if more teeth are expected to be lost/extracted and a replacement is still required in the period in between.

Complete dentures which may or may not have a metal framework replace the entire set of missing teeth & have a major disadvantage that the only grip available is from the underlying bone as no teeth are remaining. The saddest aspect is that the grip keeps decreasing with time because the bone level keeps reducing. The best results obtained are often only possible if the dentures are made with extreme attention to detail & if follow up maintenance on a??6 monthly??basis is followed.

 

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