Recently an elderly woman came to our office with a history of having an approximately 20-year-old upper denture that she said became rapidly loose about four months ago. No matter how much denture adhesive she used it would get loose after a little while. Now, at twenty years of age, this denture due to its wear and loose fit would eventually have to be replaced with a new denture. What her previous dentist did not address however was the hole she had worn thru in her old denture. This was the cause of her rapidly loose fit. With an upper denture we get a suction type of fit on the palate that tends to hold it in. With a hole in the palatal area of the denture there would be no suction and thus was causing this denture to keep falling out of her mouth. I simply proved this by placing some wax filling up the hole and creating a seal again and like magic, her denture stayed in. I then replaced my “test wax” with denture acrylic to fix the hole until a new denture could be fabricated. Now this patient could wear her old, worn denture comfortably until a new one was made.
(The information contained in this article is strictly for educational purposes and is not meant to replace the professional knowledge or advice of your personal dentist.)
