People have many complaints about traditional dentures. One of the sources of many complaints about dentures is the palate plate on the upper dentures.
The palate plate covers your palate, which can reduce your sense of taste. It can also contribute to irritation of the upper palate and even gagging. And it’s a major contributor to the foreign body sensation many people experience with dentures.
But the good news is that with implant dentures, you may be able to get rid of the palate plate on your upper dentures, which will make your dentures much more like natural teeth.
What Is the Palate Plate for?
Why do dentures have plates that cover the upper palate? It’s basically there for stability and strength.
Traditional dentures rely on a really basic mechanism to hold them in place: suction. Suction depends on creating a seal so that when the denture moves out of place it creates a vacuum under the denture. The force of the vacuum holds the denture in place. The larger the area of the vacuum, the more pressure holding the denture in place. So the denture plate provides a large area where the seal can create a vacuum, making them more stable. This is one of the reasons why the upper denture tends to be much more stable than the lower in traditional dentures.
Dentures also rely on the plate to provide strength. It’s essentially a reinforcement between the two arms of the denture. This is especially important if you experience something like fulcruming, which can cause your dentures to break in the middle.
Although dental implants may increase the force on dentures, they won’t necessarily increase the stress on them. That’s because some of the force on the dentures is passed on through the dental implants to your jawbone. And because dental implants can balance your denture, you don’t have to worry about the risk of fulcruming.
Stronger Dentures
The biggest obstacle for removing the plate is that your old dentures were made with the plate in place. If you want to keep the old dentures and adapt them to implant dentures, we can’t remove the old plate without damaging the dentures, which will probably lead to denture failure.
And if we’re making a new denture without an upper palate plate, we may also want to make it stronger. Most dentures are made of the relatively durable plastic PMMA. Although this is sufficient for traditional dentures, implant dentures may require more strength.
In that case, we may recommend dentures that are reinforced with metal, are made of an advanced ceramic, or both.
More Comfortable, Functional, and Attractive Dentures
In the past, people knew that dentures were limiting. Today, many people still think that, but the truth is that modern dentures don’t have to limit your lifestyle. They can be strong enough, functional enough, and attractive enough that you can keep enjoying a full life with them.
If you are looking for quality modern dentures in Columbia, SC, please call (803) 781-9090 today for an appointment with a denture dentist at Smile Columbia Dentistry.
