Posts for tag: Dentures
Life becomes much harder after you've lost most or all of your teeth. Luckily, dentures restore your smile and your ability to eat easily. Our 
Lansing, MI, dentist, Dr. Holly Scott-Hetchler, shares a few denture benefits you'll want to think about when you consider tooth restoration options.
Dentures give you back your smile
It's quite a shock to lose a significant amount of teeth. In fact, you may not even recognize your own reflection at first after your teeth have been extracted. Like it or not, society places a high value on the appearance of your teeth. When you replace your lost teeth with dentures, you just might find it's easier to navigate social and business situations. More importantly, dentures help you feel good about the way you look again. Although your grandparents' dentures may have looked very artificial, today's dentures are designed to look completely natural. Most people won't even know that you're wearing dentures unless you tell them.
Dentures help keep you healthy
Eating is a challenge when you don't have teeth. Although you can certainly swallow soft foods, eating a soft diet isn't always particularly appetizing or nutritious. Healthy diets rely on a mixture of whole grains, legumes, lean meats, fruits and vegetables. When you don't receive needed vitamins and nutrients from foods, your health may begin to suffer. Dentures restore your ability to eat the foods you need to stay healthy. You may not be able to eat very hard foods with dentures, but you'll find that dentures allow you to eat nearly anything you want.
Dentures help you communicate
When your teeth are gone, it's hard to pronounce words clearly. Holding conversations with other people can become very frustrating as you struggle to make yourself understood. Unfortunately, your speech problem can be more than just an inconvenience. Dentures restore your ability to speak clearly.
Restore your smile with dentures. Call our Lansing, MI, dentist, Dr. Scott-Hetchler, at (517) 487-6333 to schedule an appointment.
Dentures can truly give you something to smile about whether you have one or many missing teeth. If filling in your gaps is on the top of 
your priority list, dentures could be just what you need. However, understanding the types of dentures available from your Lansing, MI dentist plays an important role in determining which style is best for you. Learn more about dentures with Dr. Holly Scott-Hetchler.
The Benefits of Dentures
Dentures fill in your smile, boost your confidence, and allow you to chew the foods you love. Before dentures, you may have found chewing or eating difficult. This, in turn, can cause digestive problems from food being improperly broken down by the teeth, thus improperly broken down by the stomach. Additionally, this problem with eating could cause you to eat only soft foods like applesauce or yogurt, which do not contain all of the nutrients required for a healthy diet.
Types of Dentures Available in Lansing, MI
- Full Dentures: Full dentures replace an entire arch of teeth. If you are missing all of your teeth, a set of full dentures replaces both the top and bottom arch.
- Partial Dentures: Patients who have some healthy teeth left behind may find partial dentures the most beneficial. The design of the denture leaves openings for these healthy teeth to slide through, holding the denture in place and giving the teeth the stimulation they require to remain healthy.
- Immediate Dentures: If a patient has remaining teeth that are not healthy, they may require extraction before wearing their denture. Patients wear an immediate denture directly after their extraction.
- Implant-Supported Dentures: Implant-supported dentures use dental implants to anchor the denture permanently in place. While your dentist can remove the denture to adjust it, it remains in your mouth at all times, held in place by the implants.
If you think dentures could benefit you, your dentist can help fill in your smile for good. For more information on dentures or which type is best for you, please contact Dr. Scott-Hetchler in Lansing, MI. Call (517) 487-6333 to schedule your appointment for a denture consultation today!
Whether the person sitting in the dentist's chair is a 20 year old college student, or an 82 year old great grandfather, cosmetic dentistry has made it possible for anyone to have a perfect smile, regardless of past dental problems. Yet even with abundant access to oral healthcare, many people let fear of the dentist, embarrassment, and myths about common dental practices and procedures get in the 
way of fixing their smile and replacing missing teeth.
The Truth About Dentures
One of the biggest myths about dentistry is that tooth loss - and by extension dentures - are problems that exclusively affect the elderly. Periodontal disease, the leading cause of tooth loss, can (and often does) also affect younger adults. Poor oral hygiene habits, as well as genetics, can lead to gum disease and tooth loss well before retirement age. Trauma and accidents also cause tooth loss at any age.
In addition to the cosmetic considerations (missing teeth can not only cause embarrassment and self esteem problems, they can also cause the skin around the mouth to sag and become hollow), they can also lead to loss of healthy bone tissue in the jaw.
Benefits of Cosmetic Dentures
Dentures have come a long way since the time of America's first president and most famous founding father and dental patient, George Washington (yes he did have them, and no they were not made out of wood). There are several types of dentures, all of which are designed for a secure fit, and to match the cosmetic appearance of natural teeth.
Depending on the extent of tooth loss and the individual needs of each patient, Lansing dentist Dr. Holly A. Scott-Hetchler will recommend:
- Complete dentures
- Partial dentures
- Overdentures
- Implant-supported denture
- Immediate dentures
- Soft liners
Many people state shame or embarrassment over missing teeth and other dental problems as a major factor in their overall self image and confidence, which can negatively impact everything from career success to social and personal relationships. Cosmetic dentures can help to improve a person's overall quality of life by restoring their natural smile.
To learn more about dentures and comprehensive dental care in Lansing, contact Holly A. Scott-Hetchler DDS, PC at (517) 487-6333 to schedule a consultation today!
If you are in a situation where you need to replace multiple missing teeth, you may want to talk to your Lansing, MI dentist, Dr. Holly Scott-Hetchler, about getting fitted for dentures. Today’s dentures are more comfortable and functional than in the past. With a similar appearance to your natural teeth, dentures can give you back the complete smile that you lost. Talk to Dr. Scott-Hetchler today to learn more or have a consultation to get fitted for dentures in Lansing.