Making Beautiful Smiles: How Dentures are Manufactured

False teeth or dentures are removable or fixed replacements for your natural teeth. Tooth replacement is sometimes necessitated by irrecoverable damage done to the tooth and its roots. In order to get a clearer picture of how your dentures are created, here is the entire process.

Step 1: An Impression of Your Mouth

Denture manufacturing begins with a first round impression of your mouth. The impression is created using wax and is critical in the preparation of the diagnostic cast. While creating the impression, you will notice that the dentist will apply pressure to your soft tissues. The force is meant to simulate your bite force. The pressure is also used to create a border for the mould adjacent to the toothless regions in your mouth for better adoption to the gums.

With the appropriate preliminary cast done, the final cast is created out of gypsum. The mould is inspected before it can be used for manufacturing of teeth.

Step 2: Formation of the Denture

The mould cast is then filled with acrylic resin used in forming the denture. Prior to adding resin, a release agent is added to the gypsum mould to help ensure that the hardened acrylic is easy to remove. A sheet of separating film is sometimes added between the model and the acrylic. A denturist will mix the resin compounds in liquid form and pour them into the mould. The mould is thoroughly inspected during this process to ensure that the acrylic fills it up tightly. A vertical vice is used for this.

Step 3: Heating the Mould

Once the denturist is satisfied that the mould is tightly packed, he or she initiates a chemical reaction that aids in hardening the resin. Hardening can take up to 8 hours. Once the heating process is complete, and mould has cooled, the mould is taken apart to reveal the dentures created.

Step 4: Fitting in the Mouth

The first thing your dentist will do is place the model in your mouth to ensure that the bite is good, and that it fits as intended. Because of all the processes done in earlier steps, there might be a slight discrepancy in terms of fit. The dentist might have to carry out minor smoothing and grinding of the surfaces to ensure that your denture fits in the mouth snugly.

The dentures created using the steps above are, at this point, removable. Further processes may be required to attach the dentures to your jaw bone. These steps include drilling holes in the jawbone, attaching an anchor, and finally attaching the replacement tooth.

For more information on what denture clinics do, contact specialists such as Hornsby Denture Clinic.