Broken dentures will happen at the worst times. Just before a wedding, an important meeting or a family function. No matter how important your appointment might be dentures have a way of breaking at that specific time. But there’s no need to worry, most dentures can be repaired even if sometimes just to get you out of trouble.
Depending on the time available and type of breakage you may be tempted to glue the dentures using super glue. Glueing your dentures can help but it’s not always recommended. Whenever someone calls us asking us to repair their dentures one of the first questions we ask is if they’ve glued them together themselves using super glue. If the answer is yes, we must warn then that we can not only repair their dentures to the exact position where they’ve been glued. If a broken denture is glued in the wrong position, even if it’s only by a small degree it may no longer fit well enough in the mouth to be comfortable or it may easily break again. Glueing a broken denture is only a temporary fix since the glue eventually loses its grip.
There is also the option of buying a do it yourself denture repair kit which in Australia are only available online. These can be used but only as a temporary fix. Denture repairs must be performed using the same material of which the dentures are made in order to ensure a chemical bond takes place and that the repair is permanent.
Another common question is whether the repair is under warranty. The answer isn’t as straightforward as yes or no. We would usually need to know how the denture broke in the first place. If the denture broke because you dropped it or sat on in them, we know the reason why they broke. However, if the denture broke in the mouth with no explainable reason then it’s usually because the denture is no longer fitting correctly due to wear in the gums or the denture. So if the later is true we advise that the repair has been completed to the best possible strength, but due to the denture not fitting well it may break again. Simply repairing the denture will cause the same problem to occur again. We would then suggest the patient address the problem so that the breakage doesn’t happen again.
There are many different ways a denture can be damaged. Most times they can be repaired but there are times when a completely new denture would be better in the long run. When a metal denture (Cobalt chrome base) has been bent we cannot guarantee the repair, or if it can be repaired at all. Cobalt chrome dentures are cast in perfect shape according to the tooth position, therefore when they bend, it is a guessing game in trying to bend it back in place and very risky because bending a cobalt chrome dentures can easily break as they are not made to be adjusted except for the clasps but only minimally.
There are several types of flexible dentures, some can be repaired some cannot. Valplast dentures which are flexible are made from a nylon mix acrylic which cannot be added to and therefore not repairable. We can sometimes in an emergency add rigid acrylic as a quick fix but the two materials are different and do not chemically bond. This type of repair is only ever performed as an emergency and is not considered final. Other flexible material such us thermosense can be added to and repaired, though it takes longer to repair than the traditional rigid acrylic dentures.
It would be impossible to cover every type of break and repair possible so it’s advisable to give us a call and find out what we can do for you. Typically, repairs are completed within the hour however, we would always estimate the time for your convenience .
