Are dentures better than a mouth full of crowns?
Question
I have crowns, three fixed bridges and had (until recently) a partial plate. My teeth have always been very poorly constructed. Although I brush and floss regularly, they fracture from tip to root easily. My crowns have all been replaced several times. Recently, the anchoring tooth for my partial fractured and had to be removed.
In the dentist’s office, they had to fix my partial to the roof of my mouth for x-rays, so they used a fix-i-dent product. I decided that I would never be able to tolerate that stuff, so getting dentures will be my last resort. Try some of that stuff in your mouth before you get all your teeth pulled. By the way, dentures are not without problems. They shift, click and can be irritating to your gums, even if they are good quality. If you are as vain as I am, you would rather do anything than be seen without your “teeth in.”
Answer
Rating: +0
Dentures are never better. I recently learned that your jaw bone starts disentegrating when there are no natural teeth in it. This means that if some or all of your teeth are missing and you wear a partial or full denture - your jaw bone, both upper and lower, will start receding. This is why dentures end up having to be replaced periodically, because they don’t fit right. Your jaw bone can end up being almost non-existant, with no “ridge” on which a partial or denture can sit. The only way to stop bone loss if you’re missing teeth is to get implants - which are very expensive. So, keep your own teeth in your head with the help of root canals and crowns for just as long as you can.
Even at a young age, people with dentures develop a receeding jaw line and those sad vertical wrinkles at corners of mouth that are typical for old age. The bone mass quickly disappears unless you take dentures out and massage the gums. Also, the dentures come with artificial gum to prevent food from getting trapped at the real gum line. I don`t have dentures but I can imagine it feels like having an octopus in your mouth all day… I actually have crooked teeth with a few not too obvious fillings. Over the years people told me how much they liked to see “natural teeth”. So I decided to keep my crooked appearance over a receding face with pearly fake whites.
