CASE SUMMARY: Complete Dentures
by Carlos Castro, DDS, FACP, Board Certified Prosthodontist | Georgia Prosthodontics
Patient “Ellen” was 70 years old when she was referred to our office by her general dentist. She did not want to have dental implants, yet she expected a stable denture on the mandible.
Her diagnosis included:
• History of ill-fitting dentures that were unstable and esthetically unpleasant. Some denture teeth had fractured in prior years.
• Remaining alveolar ridges were severely atrophied, with loss of height and thickness.
Her treatment plan had the following steps:
A complete diagnostic routine performed, including preliminary exploratory casts, photographs, and intraoral palpation of muscles of the floor of the mouth.
Evaluation of her Vertical Dimension and speech tests. It was determined that she needed a new set of dentures at a restored Vertical Dimension.
Preliminary impressions were made, custom trays fabricated, and a final impression with proper border molding to register the muscle insertions and activity around bearing areas.
Artificial teeth arrangement was completed on a customized semi-adjustable articulator using a bilaterally-balanced occlusal scheme and tried in. Centric Relation records and proposed Vertical Dimension were tested.
Final insertion of complete dentures, made from conventional acrylic base and IPN denture teeth to resist wear (see on next page), using our in-house Prostho Dental Lab.
The primary challenge of this case was providing proper retention and stability of the dentures on a severely atrophied mandible without the help of dental implants.
Ellen was thrilled with her new dentures, and we sent her back to the referring office.
We refer patients back to their general dentist for regular hygiene unless advised otherwise by the referring office, depending on the patient and treatment.
You may have patients with dentures that bother them, even if they don’t always tell you directly, but you can notice they are uncomfortable or unhappy. They may want to consider a fixed prosthesis.
Let us know how we can help. Or, if you have comments or questions about how I treated Ellen from this example, please email my office at smileagain@gaprostho.com
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If you’d like to meet to discuss a difficult procedure or talk on the phone about how we can help each other, please call or email our office with specific days and times when you are available to talk or meet.
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The Reconstructive Dentistry Team
Georgia Prosthodontics is a specialty practice focused on Implant, Cosmetic and Reconstructive Dentistry. Drs. Castro & Delgado have the training and private practice experience that makes treatments of complex cases more successful, including the following examples:
• Patients with severely worn/damaged teeth, missing all teeth, or with ill-fitting dentures can receive a full arch of natural-looking teeth to restore function & esthetics.
• Patients with congenital defects, a chronic condition, or traumatic injury can receive oral prostheses, which may be a combination of dental implants, crowns, bridges, or veneers.
• Patients with difficult anterior cases in the esthetic zone can receive single or multiple dental implants to replace missing teeth, or veneers or crowns to improve the appearance of their smile.
In addition, they have a private dental laboratory called Prostho Dental Lab. An in-house, experienced, and certified dental technician creates each custom restoration for referred patients from the best materials using the latest technology. To send an implant case to our dental lab, please visit: www.prostholab.com
Online Referral Form
Dear Doctor:
We appreciate your confidence in us. To refer one of your patients to a Prosthodontist you can either download our referral form or fill it out online and send it directly to us.
We look forward to hearing from you!