It seems that dentists have become so high-tech these days that many of us may be embarrassed to still offer partial dentures instead of implants. The world of partial dentures is not dead. In fact, it is very much alive and at the right price today.
Depending on a particular patient's situation, we can use either cast metal partials or flexible partials to act as an interim until a patient is ready to have fixed restoration services provided. However, partials can be long-term and may satisfy a significant percentage of the population today without some of the problems of the past.
With the advent of making a final customized impression in a single appointment better and more accurate than the previous two-appointment procedure (combined with better and thinner metals), we can offer patients a more comfortable and natural-fitting result. The partial design process, aided by computerized designing and eliminating the time-consuming refractory model, have streamlined the entire process. I can now deliver a partial denture restoration with the confidence of optimal fit the first time with little to no adjustment.
Maybe we should get the word out to the profession that partial dentures today are not the same as the ones we experienced in the past. The principles of design have been adjusted due to the advances in materials. Our previous problems were mostly due to the limitations of materials and their inherent properties requiring more tooth preparations, compounded by inaccuracies of impression of hard and soft tissues. Today’s advances in these areas have given the prosthetic team (dentist, laboratory, and materials manufacturer) the tools to fabricate more successful partial prosthetic restorations.
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If you have not been working with partial dentures in the last three to five years, you’re missing out on an old technology that has had a facelift and is going viral in many countries other than the U.S. We need not be embarrassed in offering patients today’s partial dentures, which are well designed and fabricated with today’s best materials. Partial dentures can and do benefit patients, dentists, material manufacturers, and dental laboratories, and can boost everyone's bottom line.
The depression of recession held many patients in limbo about restarting their needed dentistry, and this is a good time to offer those patients partial restorations that are stable, comfortable, esthetic, and affordable.
Please feel free to email me with questions about this topic at [email protected], or call me at 918-749-5600.
To see Dr. Massad’s video tips, visit www.DentalLibrary.com.
