Dentures today — better than their reputation
Dentures carry decades of baggage: clacking, slipping, glasses by the bed. Modern dentures, properly made and fitted, deserve better. Materials, shade-matching and design have improved enormously, and a well-made denture restores a natural appearance and reliable function for a fraction of the cost of fixed alternatives. The honest caveats remain — and this guide includes them — but the starting point is that dentures at Station House begin from £486.20 and remain the most accessible route to replacing missing teeth.
Partial dentures: acrylic vs chrome
A partial denture replaces some teeth while your natural teeth remain. Acrylic partials are the entry option: plastic-based, economical, easily added to if another tooth is lost later. They are bulkier and rely on the gum and remaining teeth for support. Chrome (cobalt-chromium) partials are cast on a thin metal framework: slimmer, stronger, more secure, kinder to the gums because they clasp teeth precisely — and noticeably more expensive. For long-term wear with several natural teeth remaining, chrome is usually the better engineering; we will tell you which your mouth actually justifies.
Full dentures — and what new wearers should expect
A complete denture replaces every tooth in a jaw, resting on the gums — the upper gaining suction from palate coverage, the lower relying on the ridge and your muscle control, which is why lower full dentures are universally the harder of the two. Honest expectations for the first weeks: more saliva than usual, altered speech that self-corrects with practice, eating that starts soft and bilateral, and sore spots that need adjustment visits — which are part of the process, not a sign of failure. Most wearers adapt well within a few weeks; the patients who struggle longest are usually those with very resorbed lower ridges, which is exactly where implant retention (below) changes everything.
Immediate dentures
When teeth are being extracted, an immediate denture is made beforehand and fitted the day the teeth come out — you are never without teeth. The trade-off: gums shrink significantly as they heal over the following months, so immediate dentures loosen and need relining or remaking. They are a bridge through healing, and we will be upfront about that second cost from the start.
The honest limitations
Dentures restore appearance well and function adequately — but chewing force is a fraction of natural teeth, very hard and chewy foods stay difficult, lower dentures move, and the bone under a denture continues to shrink over the years, which is why dentures need relining or remaking periodically rather than lasting forever. None of this is a reason to avoid dentures; it is the context for the next section.
Implant-retained dentures — the loose-denture solution
The single biggest upgrade in denture comfort is anchoring the denture to implants. A small number of implants placed in the jaw carry attachments that the denture clips onto: it snaps in, stays put through eating and speaking, and unclips for cleaning. For lower full-denture wearers — the people who suffer most — for most wearers the improvement is substantial, restoring chewing confidence that gum-borne dentures cannot match. As a fixed alternative, a full-arch implant bridge (from £9,800) replaces the denture entirely. If your current denture's main fault is movement, ask about implant retention before remaking another conventional one; our implant consultations are from £90.
Daily care that extends denture life
Clean the denture daily with a brush and denture cleaner or plain soap — not toothpaste, which is abrasive enough to scratch acrylic. Take dentures out at night: gums need rest, and round-the-clock wear raises the risk of fungal irritation under the plate. Soak overnight in water or cleaning solution; never hot water, which warps acrylic. Clean over a folded towel or basin of water — most denture fractures are drops onto bathroom sinks. And keep your check-ups even with no natural teeth: we monitor fit, the health of the gums underneath, and screen the soft tissues.
When to reline, repair or remake
Looseness that food packs under, rocking, new sore spots, or a denture more than several years old all suggest the fit no longer matches your gums. Relining adds a fresh fitting surface to your existing denture; rebasing renews more of it; remaking starts fresh when teeth are worn or the fit is beyond rescue. Cracked or broken dentures can usually be repaired — but repeated fractures are a fit problem announcing itself, not bad luck.