What Are Dentures Made Of?
You can think of your dentures as being made of two parts: the base of the denture and the teeth. The base of the denture is made from a carefully pigmented acrylic called polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA). This pigmented acrylic mimics the look and colour of your natural gum tissue.
All About The Denture Making Process
Each denture is tailor-made for your mouth, meaning your dentist will take impressions to make a model for a perfect fit. Usually a set of complete dentures is made with the following steps:
Step 1: Your Clinic Dental Technician or dentist will make a model. Using the denture impressions of your jaw and mouth, your dentist will create models, usually from wax or plastic, based off the impression. You will try the model several times to check for fit, shape, and even colour before the denture is made.
Step 2:The model is placed in an articulator. The Clinic Dental Technician or technician will use a mechanical device used to represent the jaw known as an articulator to attach the teeth with wax.
Step 3: The Clinic Dental Technician or technician carves the wax. Using the wax model, the technician shapes and carves the wax, so it looks like your gums. This wax base will be used for your finished dentures.
Step 4: Set dentures in a flask. The Clinic Dental Technician or technician places the dentures in a flask, which is a holding device into which more plaster is poured, so the shape of the dentures can be maintained. The flask is then placed in hot water and the wax is melted off.
Step 5: Inject acrylic into the plaster mould. Once the wax has been removed, the Clinic Dental Technician or technician adds a liquid separator onto the plaster layer. This separator stops the acrylic from sticking to it, and the acrylic is then injected into the flask to replace the wax.
Step 6: The plaster is removed. The Clinic Dental Technician or technician carefully removes the plaster mould using special lab tools and places the acrylic dentures in an ultrasonic bath to remove any remaining plaster.
Step 7: The Clinic Dental Technician or technician trims and polishes the denture. Any excess acrylic from the dentures will be cut from the denture. After trimming, the technician will use pumice to polish it.
Step 8: Dentures are ready. Now the dentures are ready, your Clinic Dental Technician or dentist will call you in for your initial fitting.