If you are one of the millions of people who wear dentures, you know that they can sometimes be a pain. Not only do they often feel uncomfortable, but they can also be difficult to keep clean. And if you happen to lose a denture, it can be pretty embarrassing. But all of that is changing with the help of digital dentistry!

Digital dentistry is revolutionising the way that oral health care professionals are able to create and fit dentures. Using state-of-the-art technology, oral health care professionals can now take a digital impression of your mouth, which is then used to create a custom-fit denture. And thanks to advances in printing technology, it is now possible to create temporary dentures that look and feel just like real teeth!

So if you are considering getting dentures, or if you already have them and are looking for a way to improve your smile, be sure to ask your oral health care professional about digital dentistry. It just might be the answer you’ve been looking for!

Digital dentistry is changing the way that oral health care professionals are able to repair and replace lost or damaged teeth. Amman Girrbach is innovating digital dentistry with the Ceramill FDS - producing the highest quality, longest lasting and strongest dentures on the planet with the help of VITA VIONIC FRAME teeth and VITA VIONIC BASE. You can rest assured that dentures have never before been produced at such a close fitting level, making replacement teeth that look and feel just like the real thing!

So if your dentures are chipped, cracked, or even if your teeth are missing, don't despair – there is now a solution that can give you back your smile.

"May all your teeth fall out except for one and from that may you have eternal toothache!" - Yiddish curse.

Tooth loss causes a direct negative impact on quality of life particularly, but not limited to the following areas:

Aesthetics - the social implications of tooth loss, self image and ability to interact with others un-self-consciously.

Phonetics - correct formation and pronunciation of words and continuous flow of sentence structure.

Function - Abnormal masticatory process for ingesting sustenance.

The age we live in is an age of physical perfection, playing a large role in an image-conscious society. Teeth, and your smile is the first interaction in any social engagement - the battering ram of your personality. A broken smile carries negative social and economic stigma which may cause, as Willis et al. (2008) state: ‘significant barriers to personal and social success’.

The world is shrinking, bringing together many languages and accents. It is relatively common to have speech corrected and this can be embarrassing, especially if it is no longer possible to phoneticize correctly - just try saying tomato or tomato, data or data - Cunningham's Law in action. With tooth loss Saintrain and de Souza (2012) point out that ‘The speech gets blurred; the pronunciation of the words is different…’. This can cause some unintelligibility both amongst same-language speakers and foreign speakers.

Abnormal mastication is not only a social impediment, but also a nutritional one. The normal masticatory process allows for the adequate intake of energy and diet quality, Zhu and Hollis (2014) posit that ‘Tooth loss in adults is associated with lower diet quality and reduced intake of most nutrients’.

Tooth loss is predominantly social and image based, however there are other deeper considerations to take into account; communication and nutrition.

Tooth loss not only has a significant negative effect on quality of life and self perception, but also how others perceive you.

Tooth-loss is detrimental to our aesthetic conceptions of ourselves, negatively impacts the way we speak and has potential to directly and negatively impact our health.

Reference List:

Saintrain, M.V. de L. & de Souza, E.H.A., 2012. Impact of tooth loss on the quality of life. Gerodontology, 29(2). Available at: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1741-2358.2011.00535.x/abstract [Accessed February 22, 2017].

Willis MS, E. al, Social perceptions of individuals missing upper front teeth. - PubMed - NCBI. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18556899 [Accessed February 22, 2017].

Zhu, Y. & Hollis, J.H., Tooth loss and its association with dietary intake and diet quality in American adults. - PubMed - NCBI. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25174947 [Accessed February 22, 2017].