The Renaissance of Removable Dentures

Executive Editor Daniel Alter, MSc, MDT, CDT | daniel.alter@conexiant.com

For a long time, dentures were the only mode by which we restored full arches for dental patients to masticate, function and participate in all activities, as if they had their natural dentition. We've all heard the story of the wooden denture worn by our founding father, George Washington. While Washington did not have actual wooden teeth, he did suffer from many dental issues throughout his life. His false teeth were made of human and cow teeth and elephant ivory. Nevertheless, dentures were among the only viable options for those looking to achieve the best  results. Regretfully, many clinicians and even laboratories often deferred their removable offerings and declined these valuable services, because economically it was more beneficial to produce other restorative options, including fixed restorations. The root cause of that occurrence was the number of appointments necessary and the logistics of having multiple sets at separate phases sent back and forth and forth between the clinic and the laboratory, quickly eroding away the profitability and ease of offering these services.

With the advent of digital dentures, we are seeing a notable change in mindset that has produced a palatable shift, one that has become more apparent as clinicians and laboratories working together have been able to produce dentures for their patients in as little as 3 to 4 appointments. The benefits of digital dentures do not simply stop there. They usher in new opportunities for clinical and laboratory businesses to instill novel business models-outside the box thinking-to make digital dentures incredibly profitable with easily deployable and executable business models. Among the greatest benefits attained is data acquisition, which provides value to all parties in the form of time savings. Once a laboratory designs a digital denture, they have that data set of the patient's tomography, occlusion, esthetics, and more. If the patient were to lose or damage their dentures, the laboratory can simply re-print or re-mill a new set; whereas previously, the same scenario would have necessitated a restart.

This is just a single example of how thinking creatively can change your entire perspective and produce a new opportunity for doing business. I encourage each laboratory owner and manager to stay open minded and reflective as new materials and technologies emerge.

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