If you’ve been considering replacement dentures because your old dentures are broken or worn, you might have seen that there are new implant dentures available that use much stronger materials. Although these dentures can be helpful in some situations, most people will benefit more from improving their denture fit, rather than changing their denture materials.
The Secret to Stronger Dentures
The new, strong dentures that are available are made of a type of special ceramic known as zirconia. This is the strongest ceramic currently available for use in dentistry. Zirconia ceramics have a strength of nearly 160,000 pounds per square inch. That’s a lot of force! These ceramics are capable of standing up to virtually any forces they should encounter in your mouth.
Like traditional dentures, these dentures are all made out of the same material. This means that the dentures are capable of withstanding tremendous forces and channelling that force to the dental implants.
Dentures Don’t Need to Be That Strong
The truth is that the strength of zirconia should be completely unnecessary in a healthy bite. To give you a sense of how strong zirconia is, it’s nearly 30 times the strength of dental enamel. A bite that needs a zirconia denture is one that would completely destroy your natural teeth. This is not a healthy bite.
If you are being told that zirconia dentures are the only option for your bite, maybe you need to consider how changing your bite might actually be a better option.
Strong Dentures Can Be Worse
Strong dentures don’t solve the problem of a bad bite. In some cases, they can make it worse. As long as your bite continues to exert tremendous force, that force has to go somewhere.
When your bite puts pressure on a hard, strong denture, that denture passes the force onto your dental implants. Your dental implants, in turn, pass that force onto your jawbone.
When you are consistently putting this level of force onto your dentures, the weakest element is bound to fail. Between zirconia, titanium (what the implant is made of), and bone, that means it’s bone that’s going to fail. Or maybe the failure may occur in another part of your jaw system, such as in your temporomandibular joints, which can become damaged or displaced by the forces in an unhealthy bite. This joint damage could lead to TMJ , with symptoms that can affect your entire body.
Dentures with an acrylic base can cushion some of the bite force, and in a healthy bite are perfectly capable of withstanding your biting and chewing force.
Cosmetic Tradeoffs with Stronger Dentures
As we mentioned, these strong dentures use the same material for the teeth and base. Unfortunately, this means that your results may not be as attractive as you like. Natural teeth and gums are very different in appearance, and using the same material for both can make your smile look unnatural.
The gums will look glossy and unattractive. Nor are the teeth especially attractive. Zirconia is a strong material, but it sacrifices the translucency we find in natural teeth and in the better restorative materials.
In contrast, quality FOY® Dentures have beautiful texturing and translucency in the base that looks just like natural gums, and the teeth are as attractive as any smile created with porcelain veneers.
Get Dentures That Fix Your Bite
FOY ® Dentures are neuromuscular dentures that focus on building a healthy bite so that your bite forces can be minimized. As a result, your bite will be more comfortable and functional — and your dentures will last longer.
If you would like to learn how dentures can reverse the effects of a bad bite, please call (803) 781-9090 today for an appointment with a Columbia, SC denture dentist at Smile Columbia Dentistry.
