Dental Implants: Pros and Cons

Why Do You Need an Impression Made Before Your Denture Is Fixed?

by Brett Clark

If you've broken one of your denture plates so badly that it isn't really wearable, then you'll be looking for a clinic that offers emergency denture repairs. You're hoping that the clinic can just stick the denture back together again for you quickly.

However, when you show your denture to the dentist or technician you see, they tell you that they want to take an impression first. This impression may be taken with the denture pieces in your mouth or without them. How will it help with your denture repair?

Get a Template For the Fix

A simple denture fracture may be a relatively easy fix. If you have two pieces of denture and a clean break, then a repair may simply involve sticking the two pieces together again carefully.

Things can, however, get tricky if your denture has broken into more pieces or if it looks like you might be missing small slivers of plate or even parts of teeth. In this case, piercing the denture back together again can be like doing a jigsaw puzzle. However, this is a puzzle without a picture to guide the technician doing the repair.

In this case, you may get a speedier and more effective fix if you have impressions taken. The clinic can then use the impression as a guide for the pieces of plate you give them. It works like the picture on the jigsaw box, for example. They can then assess what goes where and what, if anything, is missing.

Make Sure the Denture Fits Right

While an experienced denture repair specialist can piece together even complex breaks without any guidance in an emergency, they may find it hard to recreate your denture plate exactly without some help. For example, they may be able to put the plate back together again, but they may not get the fit exactly right.

While this gives you your teeth back, they may not be as comfortable to wear as they were before you broke them. Even a little movement out of shape can make a denture uncomfortable.

It's far easier for a clinic to repair a denture plate and to get its fit right with an impression. The impression shows them how the plate should fit in your mouth.

So, if you need an impression, have it done. It may well speed up the repair so that you can get your teeth back in your mouth where they belong.

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