Custom Dentures in Hocking, Perth

Dentures replace missing teeth with a removable plate, either a full set where no natural teeth remain or a partial that fits around the ones that do.

Dentures are a replacement for missing teeth that can be taken out and put back as you please. Depending on the case, patients receive full or partial dentures.

Nobody arrives pleased about needing them. What we can say honestly is that the first month is the hard part, that almost everything difficult about it is fixable with adjustments, and that people who come back for those adjustments end up far happier than people who put the denture in a drawer.

Full dentures: two ways of getting there

Full dentures are used when all the natural teeth have been removed, and they come in two kinds. The difference is entirely about timing, and it is a genuine trade-off rather than a case of one being better.

Conventional

Made after healing

All the teeth are removed and the tissue is given time to heal before the dentures are placed.
It can take a few months for the gum tissue to heal completely, and during this time you will be without teeth.
The fit is better from the start, because the denture is made against gums that have already settled into their final shape.
Fewer relines needed in the first year.

Immediate

Fitted the day the teeth come out

Before your teeth are removed, measurements are taken and dentures are made for your mouth. After the teeth are removed the dentures are placed immediately.
The benefit is that you do not have to spend any time without teeth.
You will need a follow-up visit to refit them, because the jaw bone changes shape slightly as the mouth heals. The dentures need tightening once that healing is done.
More adjustments and usually a reline in the first year, which is part of the plan rather than a complication.

Partial dentures

Partial dentures are another option when not all of your teeth need to be removed. This is similar to a bridge, but it is not a permanent fixture in your mouth — it comes out for cleaning and it can be added to later if you lose another tooth, which a bridge cannot.

They are made either with an acrylic base or on a cast metal framework. Acrylic is less expensive and easier to add to; a metal framework is thinner, stronger and generally more comfortable, and it spreads the load onto the teeth rather than onto the gum. Which suits you depends on how many teeth are missing and where they are.

The teeth that a partial denture clasps onto do more work than they did before, so keeping them clean matters more than it did. Decay at the point where a clasp rests is the usual reason a partial denture stops fitting.

At a glance

Types: Full (conventional or immediate) and partial
Made from: Impressions of your own mouth, by a dental technician
Appointments: Several — impressions, a try-in, fitting, then adjustments
Settling in: Weeks rather than days, for eating and for speech
Adjustments: Expected and included. Never file or adjust them yourself
Reviews: Yearly at least — the gums underneath keep changing shape

The first month

Your dentures may take some time to get used to. This part is normal, temporary, and worth knowing in advance.

The flesh-coloured base of the dentures sits over your gums. Some people say it feels bulky, or that there is not enough room for the tongue. Other times the dentures feel loose. These feelings affect the way you eat and talk for a little while. Over time your mouth is trained to eat and speak with them, and they begin to feel more and more like natural teeth.

Week one — everything feels wrong
Increased saliva, a sense of bulk, and the constant awareness of something being there. All of it settles as the mouth stops treating the denture as a foreign object.
Eating: start soft, and cut things smaller
Chew on both sides at once rather than one — that is the opposite of how you ate with teeth, and it is what keeps a lower denture stable. Avoid biting into things with the front teeth for the first few weeks.
Speech: read aloud
Certain sounds go strange at first, particularly s and f. Ten minutes a day of reading out loud sorts it out considerably faster than waiting does.
Sore spots: come back
One or two rubbing points are expected with any new denture and take a couple of minutes to adjust. Leave the denture out if it is genuinely painful, but put it back in for a few hours before your adjustment appointment so we can see where the mark is.
Sleeping
Leave them out at night unless we have told you otherwise, and keep them in water. The gums need time without pressure, and denture stomatitis is much more common in people who wear them around the clock.

They may never feel exactly like natural teeth, and we would rather say so than pretend. What they should be is comfortable, stable and unremarkable, and if they are not, that is a fixable problem rather than something to live with.

Caring for them

Even though dentures are not real teeth, you should care for them as though they are.

Brush them to remove plaque and food, over a basin of water or a folded towel — that is the difference between a dropped denture and a broken one.
Use soap and a denture brush, or a denture cleaner. Ordinary toothpaste is abrasive enough to scratch acrylic, and scratches hold stain.
After they are removed, place them straight into room-temperature water or a denture cleaning solution. Never hot water: it warps them, permanently and irreversibly.
Clean your gums, tongue and palate with a soft brush every morning, even where no teeth remain. And clean any remaining natural teeth properly — a partial denture makes them harder to keep clean, not easier.
Never try to adjust or file them yourself. It is the fastest way to ruin a denture, and an adjustment here takes minutes.
Bleach, boiling water and vinegar are all worth avoiding; they damage acrylic and the metal in a partial framework.

If a lower denture will not stay put

This is the single commonest complaint, and it is not a reflection on the denture. An upper denture has a whole palate to seal against; a lower one has a narrow ridge, a tongue pushing at it from one side and a cheek from the other. Some lower dentures are stable, and some are not, and the difference is mostly the shape of the ridge underneath.

Adhesive helps and is not a sign of failure, though a denture that needs a great deal of it usually needs relining instead. Where a lower denture cannot be made stable, two implants placed in the front of the lower jaw can hold it down — the denture still comes out, but it clips into place. It is a well-established solution and it is worth asking about before accepting a denture you cannot eat with.

Come and be looked at rather than persevering. Most of what makes dentures miserable is fixable, and the ones that end up in a drawer are usually the ones where nobody was told.

Common questions

Dentures: your questions answered

How long before I can eat normally again?: Weeks rather than days, and it comes back in stages — soft food within days, most things within a month, and confidence with anything you have to bite into taking longer. Cut food smaller than feels necessary and chew on both sides at once. Apples, corn on the cob and crusty bread are the last things to return, and some people never go back to biting into them directly.
Should I wear them at night?: Generally no. The gums need time without pressure, and wearing dentures around the clock makes the sore, red palate called denture stomatitis considerably more likely. Keep them in water overnight. The exception is the first day or two after immediate dentures, when we may ask you to leave them in to control swelling — we will tell you if so.
Do I need adhesive?: A well-fitting upper denture usually does not. A lower one often benefits from a little, particularly at first, and there is nothing wrong with using it. What is worth noticing is a growing need for it: if you are using more than you were six months ago, the denture has stopped fitting and wants relining rather than more paste.
How often do they need replacing?: The denture itself lasts years; the fit does not, because the ridge underneath keeps changing shape. Most people need a reline at some point and a remake eventually. A yearly review is what catches that early, and it is also when we check the gums and remaining teeth underneath — which is the part people skip once they no longer have teeth to worry about.
Do I still need check-ups if I have no natural teeth left?: Yes, and this is worth saying plainly. The examination is still looking at the soft tissues — cheeks, tongue, palate, floor of the mouth — for the things that produce no symptoms at the stage they are most treatable. It also checks how the denture is sitting and how much ridge is left. Once a year at minimum.
Will people be able to tell?: Modern dentures are made to look like teeth in a face rather than teeth in a catalogue, and the shade, shape and arrangement are chosen with you at a try-in stage before anything is finished. If you have photographs of yourself with your own teeth, bring them — they are genuinely useful.
Something is rubbing. Can I file it down myself?: Please do not. It is the commonest way a denture is ruined, and once acrylic is removed it cannot be put back. Sore spots are expected with a new denture, they are quick to adjust, and adjustments in the settling-in period are part of the treatment rather than an extra.
Can a broken denture be repaired?: Usually, and often quickly. Keep every piece, including the small ones, and do not attempt to glue it — household adhesives are not repairable over and they contaminate the surfaces a proper repair needs to bond to. Ring us the same day; a denture in two halves is not something to spend a week without.
What does a health fund cover?: Most funds file dentures under major dental, so what comes back turns on which extras tier you hold, how much of the yearly cap remains, and whether a waiting period has run. Relines and repairs generally have their own item numbers and are covered separately. DVA cardholders and some government programs cover dentures too — ask us and we will check before anything is made.

All frequently asked questions

Rather talk it through first?

Ring us and describe what is going on. Reception will tell you whether to book about dentures, how long to allow, and whether anything needs looking at sooner.

Call (08) 9306 2755

Which system do you use?

Which system do you use?

Dentures

Which system do you use?

Full dentures: two ways of getting there

Partial dentures

Which system do you use?

The first month

Caring for them

If a lower denture will not stay put

Dentures: your questions answered

Rather talk it through first?

Which system do you use?

Which system do you use?