On-Site Dental Laboratory

So what’s the difference between going to a Dentist or a Clinical Dental Technician for dentures? 

In the UK, Dental Technicians qualified to see patients clinically are called Clinical Dental Technicians. However, this means they are far more qualified than regular dental technicians who are not allowed to see patients directly providing dentures. In other countries, Clinical Dental Technicians specialising in dentures are called Denturists or Dental Prosthetists.

Unlike most general dentists, Clinical Dental Technicians are personally involved in manufacturing your dentures in their on-site dental laboratories. As a result, they see each patient clinically for all the impression-taking and denture fittings, affording them many advantages for denture treatment.

For example, Denture Repairs relines and adding new teeth to dentures are offered as while-you-wait services that are rarely available from regular dentists who have to send them away, often for several days.

CDTs are now officially a part of the dental team treating denture patients directly and keeping records the same as dentists.

Let’s Talk About You!        Planning Your Treatment

It’s All About Good Communication

What matters most with getting every denture right for each patient is Good Communication and your denture clinician’s professional experience, ability to talk to you and explain about all of your options in an easy to understand on the level manner without sounding like quoting a textbook. Starting with the main reasons you’re here, I like to ask you several prompting questions about your denture history, medical history, existing denture problems and expectations. Denture treatment, on the whole, is a vast and complicated subject that’s unique to each patient, so we need all the facts before we can plan your treatment.

There are vast differences in natural mouth shapes, jaw/bite positions, the health of remaining teeth and missing teeth combinations, as well as all the kinds of denture teeth and materials available for us to use, so to generalise with an easy one size fits all price list would be foolish and unrealistic. That’s why my consultations are free to have a good discussion with you, show you all the advisable options with costs involved and thrash it all out to help you understand how to make the best well-informed choice.

We first have to think about the best denture base to use (acrylic/chrome alloy/flexible) and separate partial dentures from full dentures based on lots of unique scenarios with different challenges and problems to solve specific clinical needs.

Common Denture Problem Solving Questions

Appearance

Do we copy your old dentures or change your smile? How real do the latest denture teeth look? Can we change your tooth positions and add lip support? Can we change the shade and shape of your denture teeth? Can we change the denture tooth size to show more or less? Is your current denture not lined up symmetrically with your face? Can you see the wire clasps? Do you have a photo of how your real teeth used to look? Can we add a new tooth or several teeth to your denture straight after the tooth extraction while you wait, so you’re not left with a gap? YES!

Denture Fit and Function

Do you have loose or painful dentures? Do they tip when chewing? How do they feel in the mouth? How thick are they? What kinds of dentures are there to choose from? Can you speak properly? Are they too big or small? Do they make you gag? Is the design wrong? Do they keep breaking? Have you had any teeth out recently? Can we reline your denture while you wait? Can dentures fit over roots? YES

Your First-ever Denture

Do you have a Loose front tooth or teeth? Failing crowns or bridges? Can a denture work as a solution without implants? Do you hate the thought of dentures? Are you dental phobic? Would you like us to recommend a nice dentist? Can we make a denture in a day?  YES

With all of these and often many more questions answered, only then can I manage your situation and offer my best advice so you make the right choices.

Taking Enough Time

Having ample time for each appointment and service with a friendly smile – It’s not all serious with Andy, as he likes to chat with everyone on the level, putting them at ease without the usual formalities as after all, having missing teeth and talking about dentures is a very personal and often embarrassing situation.

With the correct Treatment Plan in place to suit your budget the next most important factors are the impressions, facial and occlusal measurements, denture design choices, tooth selection and positioning. There are many kinds of impression techniques with different materials and moulds used for each unique situation with full or partial dentures to ensure the optimum fit. 3D Mouth Mapping techniques are often used to assess the correct size and shape for the edges of the pink part of each denture, called border moulding. This works to make full dentures feel tighter and harmonise facial contouring and lip support. A considerable amount of time and effort is used with denture tooth shape selection, shade matching and positioning techniques to ensure great-looking results you will be happy with. I never rush appointments through or limit the number of appointments needed to get the best results. Some dentures can be made in three appointments, but often it can take between five and ten to complete depending on each case’s complexity.

All the teeth and materials we use are CE certified and, in our opinion, offer the very best choice in quality within each of our price categories. We have a huge range of different kinds of denture teeth stocked on-site to cover every patient’s needs. Of course, the actual kinds of denture teeth and materials used do matter, but what we do with them is more important. We make every denture in our state of the art on-site dental laboratory.

New dentures very often need adjusting while they settle in during the first few days of wearing them. Making these adjustments quickly and accurately is an essential part of the treatment. A Review appointment is usually made several days after your new denture is fitted to check everything is ok. All other adjustment appointments will always be made as soon as possible after your call, often the same day. All our new dentures have twelve months guarantee and aftercare included as standard.