Prosthodontics
Prosthodontics is the dental specialty pertaining to the diagnosis, treatment planning, rehabilitation, and maintenance of the oral function, comfort, appearance, and health of patients with clinical conditions associated with missing or deficient teeth and/or maxillofacial tissues by using biocompatible substitutes.
In simple words, it is the replacement of missing structures in the oral cavity. Most commonly replaced structures are teeth. Missing teeth can be replaced using dentures such as
1) Complete Dentures
2) Removable Partial Dentures
3) Implant Supported Dentures
4) Fixed Partial Dentures
Other structures such as Palate are replaced by a prosthesis called Obturator. Obturator is a prosthesis that is fabricated in case of Cleft lip and Palate Patients and is used to replace Palate. Feeding plate is a similar prosthesis that is used to cover the defect in the palate in newborns.
Dentures
Complete Removable Dentures
These are the dentures that are given to the patients with no natural teeth remaining in the mouth. The teeth are lost either due to periodontal condition or following total teeth extraction due to various reasons. Or the second reason for fabricating complete denture is when there is a congenital absence of teeth in the oral cavity in certain conditions such as Hereditary Ectodermal Dysplasia.
All the missing teeth along with the denture base are fabricated in several sittings. Broadly, dentures can be characterized according to the Sex, Personality, and age of the patient.
Removable Partial Denture
It is the prosthesis that replaces some teeth in a partially edentulous arch; the removable partial denture can be readily inserted and removed from the mouth by the patient. It is similar to complete denture except it does not replace all the teeth in the arch.
Immediate Dentures
If someone doesn’t want to go toothless following the extraction of all the teeth, then Immediate Denture is an answer. These are the dentures that are placed immediately following the extraction of all the remaining teeth in a patient’s mouth. For more details kindly contact Texla Dental Hospital.
Over Dentures
It is any removable dental prosthesis that covers and rests on one or more remaining natural teeth, the roots of natural teeth, and/or dental implants; a dental prosthesis that covers and is partially supported by natural teeth, natural tooth roots, and/or dental implants.
The major advantage of this is that it is Tooth-Tissue supported or implant supported, unlike other removable partial dentures that are just tissue supported. So this gives better retention and stability to the denture than conventional removable partial dentures. The patients who are using implant supported overdentures, there is an improvement of 300 percent of occlusal masticatory force as compared to conventional dentures.
Flexible Dentures
Some patients have the allergy to acrylic, Nickel or other materials that are used in the dentures. For such patients, Flexible Denture is an option. These are removable prosthesis that is made up of thermoplastic polyamide material, ie. Semi-crystalline Nylon in composition.
Though this material cannot easily break but a major disadvantage is that flexible denture base allows bacterial accumulation more easily than the conventional hard acrylic denture base. So the patients wearing such prosthesis are advised to clean their denture more thoroughly and on regular basis.
Crown
In layman, language crown is also known as the cap. These caps or crowns are cemented onto natural teeth, or root canal treated teeth to protect them from being damaged. The crowns are also given over dental implants and also over the teeth that are weak such as in cases of amelogenesis imperfecta or dentinogenesis imperfecta, ie. Defects of enamel and dentin of the teeth. Other indications of crown are to cover badly shaped natural teeth.
These crowns are made up either of
1) Metal
2) Porcelain fused to metal
3) All ceramic – Zirconia and E-max
Metal crowns are durable and require less tooth preparation. They are cheap but lack the aesthetic value. On other hand, there is Porcelain fused to metal crown and have better aesthetics than All-metal crowns.
All ceramic Zirconia crowns though expensive but have high strength and are somewhat opaque. These crowns can be used for long span bridges.
On the other hand E-max crowns that are made up of Lithium Disilicate have more life-like translucency, and it is difficult to distinguish these crowns from natural teeth. But these crowns lack the strength that zirconia crowns possess.
Bridge
Bridge or Fixed Partial Denture is any dental prosthesis that is luted, screwed, or mechanically attached or otherwise securely retained to natural teeth, tooth roots, and/or dental implants/abutments that furnish the primary support for the dental prosthesis and restoring teeth in a partially edentulous arch; it cannot be removed by the patient.
These bridges are permanently fixed either on implants or with the support of natural teeth and cannot be removed by the patient. Similar to the crown these bridges are either All-metal, Porcelain Fused to metal or All ceramic.