Any denture wearers would like their dentures to be stable, retentive and esthetic. Thus  ,choosing a good material to construct denture will ensure a well fitting and natural looking denture.

Denture base

First of all, let us understand the materials which are available to construct denture base .

Denture base is a part of denture  which covers the denture supporting tissues not including the  artificial teeth although they can be made from the same material.

It provides support, retention and transmits force to our underlying oral tissues.

For your information,denture base was once made from gold, ivory and vulcanite.

Vulcanite , which is a type of hardened rubber is once used but is eliminated due to its ability to absorb water thus causing it to be unhygienic.

 These are some requirements that a denture base should have:

-          Matches  the appearance / color of the oral tissues. I am sure that all denture wearers would like their dentures to resemble the normal appearance of their natural teeth and oral tissues.

For denture bases which are made from acrylic, this will not be a problem as pigments are added into the polymer.

-          It should have high glass transition temperature and high thermal conductivity. Glass transition temperature is a temperature in which materials change from solid state to rubbery state. By having denture base made from materials which has high glass transition temperature,  denture wearers do not need to be  worried by the fact that the denture will be distorted or become rubbery when they consume hot food or beverages. High thermal conductivity ensures denture wearer to feel the temperature of the food and drinks .Without this, it might be a hazard as you might just swallow the “hot” food and drinks and burn your throat without knowing it. Chrome cobalt is a very good denture base material which has high thermal conductivity.

-          Denture base should have a good dimensional stability, thus it will maintain its shape despite being used for a long time. It should not absorb water to and causes expansion of its original size.

-          It should have be as light as possible and reduce the gravity force that acts on it and cause your denture to displace downwards from its original position.

-          Other properties such as resistance to fracture and long life span is important to ensure that you do not need to get your dentures repeat  again and again.

-Two types of materials that are available to construct denture base are:  acrylic and chrome cobalt.    Cobalt chrome is a type of alloy which consists of cobalt, chrome, chromium (added to prevent corrosion ).Cobalt chrome alloy is also used to construct some of the denture components such as clasps and etc.

For acrylic based denture,

Repair procedure can be done easily  on acrylic based and denture and has the advantage of being more esthetic compared to metal based denture, unless they are masked by layers of acrylic. Furthermore, acrylic based dentures are less costly compared to chrome cobalt dentures.

For metal based denture,

It has higher dimensional stability, which means it will not change its shape easily. As we have mentioned earlier,chrome cobalt denture has higher thermal conductivity which allows patient to feel the temperature of food and beverages they have consumed. It has disadvantages such as unable to repair/reline .–It is more hygienic as they are less porous compared to acrylic based denture thus lessens food, plaque ,calculus accumulation and maintain healthy oral tissues and surroundings.

Denture teeth

Denture teeth are normally made from two types of materials, acrylic and porcelain. Both have its advantages and disadvantages.

1)Acrylic. This acrylic we mentioned here is similar as above, only pigments are incorporated to resemble natural teeth color. Thus, it is more compatible to the material we used to construct denture base compared to porcelain.

2)Porcelain.Comparatively, porcelain, which we used  to construct dental bridges, crowns creates a clicking sound when they come into contact and they are generally more brittle compared to acrylic teeth.

Stains and other characteristics on denture teeth can be added in during construction in order to make your denture teeth look more natural . Size, shape, color of denture teeth is determined during the earlier stages where your dentist will choose based on your face shape, skin tone, etc.