Dental prosthetics - Medical specialists

What is dental prosthetics

With dental prosthetics, it is possible to replace missing teeth and improve the appearance and functionality of existing teeth. It is also known as artificial dentures.

Types of dental prosthetics

In dentistry, a distinction is made between fixed and removable dentures.

Removable dentures

In contrast to fixed dentures, removable dentures are not anchored in the jaw or connected to other teeth. In technical terms, removable dentures are also known as prostheses.

Specialists attach the prosthesis to implant abutments or to the natural teeth. The patient can remove the dentures for care.

There are different types of removable dentures and several options for anchoring the removable dentures in the jaw:

• The partial denture: specialists use the partial denture when not all teeth are missing. The most commonly used partial dentures are the telescopic denture, the attachment denture and the cast model denture.

• The full denture: Specialists insert the full denture (also known as a complete denture) into the edentulous jaw . It is removable and usually replaces an entire row of teeth. The full denture is usually made of a pink-colored plastic. It sits directly on the jaw. To ensure that the full denture fits well, subsequent adjustment is necessary, as the bones of the lower jaw usually recede with dentures.

• The implant-supported denture: With the removable implant-supported denture, implants made of titanium or ceramic also replace the tooth roots.

Fixed dentures

As the name suggests, fixed dentures remain in the mouth permanently. The patient cannot remove the fixed prosthesis. They are connected to the natural teeth or anchored in the jaw as a dental implant.

Advantages of fixed dentures

With removable dentures, the underlying bone substance usually deteriorates. As a result, dentures often do not fit perfectly. The deterioration of the jawbone can also lead to sunken facial features.

Fixed dentures, on the other hand, stabilize the adjacent teeth. This creates the important opposing bite for the opposite row of teeth in the other jaw.

The types of fixed dentures

Fixed dentures are crowns, bridges, inlays and implant prostheses:

• The crown: If a filling is not possible for individual teeth, then a crown can help. The crown replaces the missing parts of the tooth and encloses the part of the tooth that is still there. In this way, the crown protects and stabilizes the tooth, holds the adjacent teeth in place and creates the necessary counterbite.

A dental crown is an artificial replacement for a damaged tooth © dentalfoto | AdobeStock

• The bridge: If there are already one or more gaps between teeth, the dentist can close these gaps with a bridge. The neighboring teeth become the outer pillars of the bridge. If they are natural teeth, they are ground down to be crowned. A so-called pontic is inserted between the crowns on the two bridge pillars.
  
  
• Implants: Specialists use implants as bridge abutments. The natural tooth substance of neighboring teeth is completely preserved.

A dental implant serves as the basis for a firmly anchored artificial denture © labden | AdobeStock