Tissue conditioning is a technique that helps prepare your gums for supporting your dentures. Whether you’ve never had dentures before, or if you’ve had a pair of dentures that you either didn’t wear or hurt you, tissue conditioning helps you wear your dentures better.

Older woman framing her face & smile

Do You Need Tissue Conditioning?

Tissue conditioning is recommended for many situations, including:

Accelerated bone loss, indicated by:Tissue conditioning addresses the injury to your gums and underlying bone, whether that’s been caused by the extraction of your teeth or by previous dentures.

How Tissue Conditioning Works

The basic principle of tissue conditioning is simple: give your gums a relief from the pressures of dentures. After all, your gums were never meant to withstand the force of chewing, which is what dentures ask of them.

We can use soft, temporary dentures for tissue conditioning. These flexible dentures look reasonable, and they have teeth, but they aren’t really meant for chewing. Your diet may be restricted during this period, but it’s okay because the goal is to make your gums capable of supporting better chewing later.

We also sometimes use these soft dentures during the implant denture process, when pressure from hard dentures could disrupt the healing of your implants.

But if you’ve already got dentures, we might be able to add a soft liner to them to help with conditioning. You wouldn’t need tissue conditioning if your dentures were fully fitting you properly, but sometimes your dentures might be usable temporarily with a soft liner. Most likely, though, after the conditioning period you will need new dentures that fit better.

When your gums are healed, you will be ready for new, permanent dentures. It’s vital to ensure that your new dentures fit properly so you can avoid the injuries you experienced before.

If you are looking for great-fitting dentures in Columbia, SC, please call (803) 781-9090 for an appointment with a denture dentist at Smile Columbia Dentistry.