How is a denture made?

12-12-2019

Lots of people wear dentures. Most of the time, you wouldn’t even know, but it’s one of the easiest and cheapest options for replacing missing teeth.

So I’ve had one of our lab technicians, James from RJS, send me over the stages of making a denture. It can usually take between 3 and 4 appointments to have a set of dentures made, so here’s what we do:

First appointment:

At your first appointent, we will take some impressions, which allow James to make a model of your gums. It ends up looking a bit like this:

This is an exact copy of your gums and teeth, which means the denture will be moulded to the shape of your gums. Not that you’d want to share them, but basically your dentures will only ever fit you.

Second appointment:

Using wax, James will make some bite blocks. These allow the dentist to mark out the exact bite of the patient, and where the teeth should go. They also mark out your midline, and adjust the bite slightly using a bunsen burner and a wax knife. So, when James gets it back, it looks a bit like  this:

The green part is a slightly softer wax, which allows for it to mould correctly to the patients bite.

Third appointment:

This is known as the try in stage. At this point, the denture will have teeth, and all being well, after the patient has tried them in, the dentures should be ready to fit. As the dentures are still only made in wax, they can be easily adjusted if there is something not quite right.

Here’s a lower denture having it’s teeth added. As you can see, the teeth come on a little plastic board, and they have all sorts of shapes, shades and sizes. They can be easily taken in and out as the wax is easy to manipulate.

Fourth Stage:

This is where you get to take your shiny new dentures home! After they’re sent back to the lab, the wax denture is put in a secure mould, all of the wax is boiled off and replaced with pink acrylic. This material is much harder wearing and is much more solid, but there are various types of acrylic available. Ask one of our dentists for all your options!

But here’s the finished product ready to be fitted:

Very realistic aren’t they? The whole process takes about 4 weeks to complete.

Thank you to James at RJS Dental Labs for providing the pictures!

If you are interested in dentures, or any of our other products, please give us a call today on 0121 550 6958