Although there are still many alternatives available, implant supported dentures are largely considered to be the best option out there. They provide all the benefits of normal dentures with a number of advantages wearers all seem to agree put them a cut above.
Implant supported dentures are the natural extension of the more traditional version. In the past, dentures have been held in with some type of adhesive – either a tape-like-strip or some type of glue or a paste.
That’s a lot of confidence to put into such a material. As such, many wearers never felt comfortable using their full range of motion. Food could easily get in between the dentures and the gums, too, causing discomfort and potential embarrassment. All these factors and more practically defeated the purpose.
So in place of these adhesives were put surgical implants. Actual metal was inserted into the wearers jaw to ensure dentures stayed attached, securely, whenever they were worn. The open palate design simply meant there was no unnecessary middle rubbing up against the roof of the mouth.
There are two types of open palate implant supported dentures: those retained with balls and those with bars. Being that they’re both held in with an implant, it really comes down to a personal preference over which one is superior.
The ball-retained dentures (also known as Stud-Attachment Dentures) function with a ball and socket design in order to hold them in the wearer’s mouth. To that end, the implant has sockets and the dentures have balls. When the balls and sockets meet, the dentures snap in place.
With a bar-retained open palate implant support denture, the mechanism is much the same and the result is exact. Implants in this scenario span the jaw and allow a metal bar to run along the inside of it. The dentures themselves have clips that attach to that bar when they’re being worn.
Again, the difference is largely up to the wearer to decide or the dentist to recommend. The finished product, however, is unrivaled security for the wearer. It’s impossible for these dentures to slip and, because they’re held in by metal, there’s virtually no chance of the attachment mechanism breaking.
When you add to this the open palate that provides an even more realistic look and unencumbered feel, it’s hard to beat open palate implant supported dentures. Best of all, the wearer feels more comfortable with them in, meaning they won’t have to hold back from talking, laughing, yawning, eating, etc.
