Posted by writeradmin
I was replacing a denture that I’d only had a few years. I really like how the new denture looks, however the denture has trouble staying in. He did an impression and two wax try-ins. It was after the second try-in, that I told the dentist that it wouldn’t stay in. He assured me that the way try-in is only about the teeth and I have nothing to worry about. Unfortunately, when the denture was made there was no suction at all to keep it in. The dentist said that I just needed to give it a week for my gums to adjust to the dentures. He said that it is possible that my bite was off. To fix that, he ground down on the denture teeth a few times checking the bite each time. That left me with the molars ground down to nothing. Now he’s talking about doing a reline. Will that actually do anything?
Moira
Dear Moira,
I’ll say up front your dentist didn’t exactly do exemplary work here. Telling you that you just need time for the gums to adjust is nothing more than a stalling tactic on his part. The gums don’t adjust to dentures and I have no idea what he thought he’d accomplish by stalling. Unless he thought that would put you off from complaining when it didn’t work.
However, the reline is a suitable fix for what is going on.
This is just guess work about what happened here, but based on your description it looks like your dentist has skipped some steps here. The best dentures are made with a two-step impression at a minimum. Three is even better. However, there is significant competition in the dentures industry. Because of that, dentists will do what they can to keep their price down and make themselves competitive.
I’ll go over the two-step impression which is more common. Dentists will use a moldable stock tray to make a custom tray for the patient. However, what comes next is the most important. First is the border molding. This is when a heavier impression material is used in order to register the borders of the dentures. The upper dentures suction is reliant on the borders. The heavier material helps that to be more accurate by pressing into the tissue a bit.
Next comes a wash, This is a light material that will register the interior of the impression giving all the tiny details of your soft tissue.
Unfortunately, some dentists will take a shortcut using a one step impression by using a medium body material to get a (sometimes) happy medium between the heavy and light material. Most of the time this gives an usable denture and the dentist saves money.
When your dentist does the reline, tell him that you want two-step impressions done in order to get an accurate fit.
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