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Cheyenne Advanced Dental Arts
L. Scott Brooksby, DDS, DICOI
Prosthodontist
8960 W. Cheyenne #190
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Poor Fitting DenturesDear Dr. Brooksby: About a year ago I had the rest of my teeth extracted and new dentures made. The dentures did not fit and it hurt to use them. I finally had the dentist make me a new set. This set seems very loose and the dentures pop out when I talk or eat. I have to use a lot of Seabond® and denture adhesive just to be able to wear the teeth. HELP! J.P. Dear J. P.: What to expect from your first dentureI am sorry to hear that you are having these problems. For most people the very first denture is a nightmare. Not only are they dealing with teeth that now fall out of the mouth or tip, rock and roll when you eat and that interfere with talking and eating, but the jaw bone is constantly remodeling for the first six months after the extractions. While many people adapt readily to these problems, there are a lot of people that find this intolerable. Most dentists, because of insurance reasons, simply attempt to reline these first dentures. Most insurance companies will not pay for a second denture for 5 years even though the standard of care for decades has been to remake the dentures after six months. How to adjust your own denture
Many dentists use only a single impression when making dentures. This unfortunately pushes the
muscles up and away from their normal position. When the new dentures are made they also push the
muscles up and away. Usually the muscles push back knocking the denture loose. Adhesives can help
a little, but the muscles always win. We often have to trim a substantial amount of the denture away to
get them to fit. When we do a free consultation we will often show our patients where to adjust their
denture to make it fit better. You can buy an inexpensive dremel tool at Harbor Freight for about $8 to
do these adjustments or you can pay us a lot more to do it for you. The cost to do this is usually about
$1200 and may require several visits. Sometimes the denture simply needs to be remade. Give us a
call at 367-4121 and we will schedule a free consultation for you. If you would like more information
you can check out www.LasVegasFalseTeeth.com.
Dear Dr. B: I have been having toothaches, neck aches and headaches for years. I have been to chiropractors,
doctors and dentist and no one can get rid of the pain. I know there are toothaches, but no one will do
anything. Sincerely, At my witts end. Dear Witts End: Your condition is actually very common, yet rarely addressed in most medical and dental schools.
Because it is a combination of problems, it requires a coordinated approach to treatment. Of course
the most important thing is the actual diagnosis.
Normally this occurs after some time of trauma such as an accident or a blow to the head, but it can
also be associated with severe stress. The head becomes malpositioned in relation to the rest of the
neck pinching the nerves in the neck and stretching the muscles of the neck. This can cause pain when
you tip your head down and rotate side to side. These neck aches in the muscles of the neck and
shoulders can cause you to position your head to one side. This causes the bite to shift so that you only
hit the teeth on one side. As the teeth keep touching only on one side they begin to complain to the
brain that they are the only ones working. The brain sends a message to the jaw muscles to reposition
so that the teeth contact on both sides at the same time. After a short time the muscles relax and the
teeth begin to complain again. The muscles in frustration begin clamping down hard and grinding to try
and wear the teeth down that are complaining. The muscles begin to cramp and cause headache. You
now have headaches and neck aches.
Studies were done several years ago in which painful injections were placed in to several muscles one
at a time and the pain pattern was charted they found that certain muscles refer pain directly to teeth
simulating a toothache when the muscles cramps. The treatment usually involves a specially trained
physical therapist to work on the muscles of the head, neck and shoulders while the dentist makes an
appliance that balances the biting forces and takes the load off of the teeth and muscles. If you only do
a part of the treatment the other source of pain will cripple the treatment. It must be a coordinated
treatment effort.
Once the treatment is completed, the use of a computerized bite analysis using the T-Scan can help create a long lasting
stable solution to the problem. This allow the most accurate way to adjust the bite so that the teeth fit together better
than ever before.
When I did my training as a prosthodontist I chose to go to the San Francisco VA training program
because they worked together with the UCSF Dental School Myofacial Pain Center. You can take
advantage of all that we can do by calling 367-4121 to schedule an evaluation. There is hope and our
success rate in treating these problems is very high. Give us a call. Your dental questions are gladly answered in this column. E-mail it to scott@lvimplant.com or send it
to 8960 W. Cheyenne #190 Las Vegas, NV 89129 or call for
a free consultation at
. We look forward to helping you. |