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Dear Dr. John: I just had the last three teeth on my lower jaw pulled and a denture made.  I have had an upper denture for twenty years and have had no trouble eating with it.  This lower one is a different story.  It moves all over the place!  I’ve tried every denture adhesive on the market; nothing seems to help.  Is there anything I can do to keep these teeth in place?  I’m tired of eating bananas.
J. Miller-SSF

Dear Mr. Miller: Your complaint is not uncommon among people who wear full lower dentures.  Upper dentures generally fit and stabilize well without the use of denture adhesives. The full lower denture tends to be a great deal more troublesome.  The reasons for this lie in the anatomical differences between the upper and lower jaws.

The upper jaw, or maxilla, consists of one continuous area.  It has a bony ridge that is shaped like a horseshoe, which is connected by bone called the hard palate . An upper denture fits over the ridge and hard palate creating suction. This suction is what keeps the upper denture in place.

The lower jaw or mandible, differs in several ways:
                   ·    The lower jaw is hinged and moves up and down, side to side and forward and back
                   ·    It has movable soft tissues that tend to dislodge the lower denture.
                   ·    The tongue is located between the ridge, preventing the solid surface area that creates suction in the upper denture.

These differences, account for the lack of stabilizing forces in the lower denture. Therefore the denture wearer must rely on the size of the ridge, gravity and the upper denture to stabilize a lower denture. The denture wearer must also learn to chew in an up and down motion.  Often times there is very little bone height to the ridge that the denture is seated over.  In these cases, the denture may slide around making it difficult to eat or talk.  Denture adhesives are of little use on lower dentures and may actually make matters worse.

There is a solution to your problem, by placing two dental implants into your lower jawbone, and the corresponding attachments into your denture. These attachments hold your denture in place, acting like snaps on pants. When you place your denture in your mouth, the female portion of the attachment snaps over the male portion located on the implant.  This stabilizes your denture allowing you to chew with confidence. The results are phenomenal!

The procedure is straightforward.  First, the dental implants are surgically placed into your lower jawbone.  After three to four months, the bone attaches to the surface of the implant securing it into your jawbone.  Once this is accomplished, the male portion of attachment is screwed into the implant and the female portion is placed into your denture.

After some careful adjustments, you’ll be ready to get off bananas and onto apples! 

Better smiles for all.