Dentures Specialist
Vista Family Dental Care
Stacy Kirner Felix, DMD
Dentist serving Vista, Tri-City, Ocean Hills, CA and the surrounding areas
Missing teeth detract from your appearance and pose health risks, such as the shifting around of your neighboring teeth. Whether you’re missing some or all of your teeth, dentures may be right for you. At Vista Family Dental Care in Vista, California, Dr. Stacy Felix provides full and partial removable dentures to replace your missing teeth. Dentures function and look like natural teeth, even improving your chewing, speaking, and overall quality of life. If you’d like to learn more about dentures, call or schedule a consultation online today.
Dentures
What are dentures?
Dentures are removable dental appliances that can replace your missing teeth. They’re prosthetic teeth with fleshy, acrylic, gum-like bases that can match the appearance of natural teeth and improve vital functions like chewing and speaking.
At Vista Family Dental Care, Dr. Felix offers full or partial dentures. Full dentures are sets of prosthetic teeth that are for patients missing all of their teeth. Partial dentures can replace one missing tooth or several missing teeth.
How do dentures work?
When you come to Dr. Felix’s office, she takes impressions of your teeth that she sends along to a dental lab where your full or partial dentures are custom-made for you. At another appointment, Dr. Felix then fits you with your new dentures.
Lower dentures are horseshoe-shaped to make sufficient room for your tongue. Your dentures are also made to match the shade of your natural teeth and give you an attractive smile.
How difficult is it to adjust to new dentures?
It will take some time, but you will adjust to your new dentures. Dr. Felix monitors your progress closely and answers any questions you have.
Eating and speaking with your new dentures may feel strange for the first few weeks or months. It’s common for them to feel a bit loose or bulky while your tongue and cheek muscles strengthen and learn how to support your dentures.
How long do dentures last?
Generally, your dentures should last at least five to 10 years. As long as you take proper care of your dentures, there’s no reason they shouldn’t last that long, or possibly even longer. Make sure to practice good oral hygiene by brushing and flossing regularly.
Other ways you can prolong the lifetime of your dentures include soaking them in cold water when you're not wearing them, brushing them daily to remove food deposits and plaque, and bringing them into Dr. Felix when they break or become loose. Don’t try to fix them yourself.
Your mouth changes naturally as you age and your dentures may need minor adjustments, so maintaining your routine appointments for cleanings and exams with Dr. Felix is also important.
To learn more about dentures, call or schedule an in-office consultation online today.