When a new denture is inserted into a patient’s mouth, there is a microscopic space between the hard acrylic of the denture base and the gum tissue in the mouth. This gap is normally filled in with a patient’s saliva, which creates a stronger frictional grip for the denture to the ridge of gum tissue.
July 2006
Monthly Archive
Adequate amounts of saliva are very important and essential to denture wearers. Saliva helps create suction between the acrylic of the denture base and the ridge of gum tissue on which the denture sits. Saliva also acts as a lubricant to prevent irritation and abrasion to the gum tissue that comes in contact with the denture.
Conventional mandibular dentures for patients with severly atrophic mandibles often times present problems with retention, phonetics, function, and pain due to instability. Endosseous implants have been successfully used to restore edentulous mandibles with implant supported fixed bridges, hybrid prosthetic dentures and removable overdenture prostheses. However, oral rehabilitation utilizing two to four implants to support mandibular overdentures has been shown to have success rates of approximately 96% with implants placed in a one or two stage procedure. Numerous authors have also addressed patient satisfaction with the mandibular overdentures. Meijer et al. has reported that patients with two implant-supported mandibular overdentures had higher satisfaction scores than patients who had complete denture treatment.