All-on-4® vs. Dentures: Which Restorative Solution is Best for You?

Our teeth are essential for digestion and general oral health; however, about 100 million people annually don’t go to the dentist to care for dental problems that can directly affect their long-term health. This negligence can lead to various dental conditions, such as dental caries, tooth decay, periodontal disease (gum disease), tooth erosion, tooth sensitivity, impacted teeth, and oral cancer. 

When the damage is so severe that you lose teeth, things are bad enough, but nearly half of adult Americans 20-64 are missing at least one tooth and one in five adults 65 and over have no teeth (edentulism). 

Restorative dental care helps restore the eating and speaking problems of missing teeth, and solutions like dentures and All-on-4s® can make a difference in oral health. To find out which solution works best for you, we need to review the benefits and disadvantages of both dental appliances. 

Dr. Ayed Hawatmeh and his team at Bravo Dental Group can help you find the right solution if you live in the Brea, Banning, Corona, or Hemet, California area and struggle with missing teeth and its effects on oral health.

Reasons for restorative dental solutions

Restorative dental solutions are the blanket term for various dental solutions that help damaged or missing teeth, including endodontics (treating tooth pain, disease, and infection), prosthodontics (restoring oral function through prosthetics), and periodontics (treating tissue around the tooth). 

Most dental issues require dealing with multiple problems, and these different fields help tackle each one to maximize dental health. Restorative dentistry includes fillings, crowns, veneers, bridges and bonding, and implants and dentures.

Benefits of both dental solutions

Both solutions are great for missing teeth, but each has its advantages:

All-on-4

All-on-4 is the less expensive form of dental implant that can help you restore teeth on your upper or lower jaw using four implants on each jaw. Implants, in general, are advantageous in providing better stability than other methods because the implanted post is secured tightly in your jaw through osseointegration. 

Getting this type of implant means not having to take them out for cleaning; you treat them like your regular teeth. Also, people with loss of jaw bone and tissue can benefit from them.

Dentures

Dentures are the traditional method for replacing teeth in sections or the whole jaw and don’t rely on how much jaw bone or tissue you have. They can look like natural teeth, make eating and speaking easier, and are a less expensive option to replace teeth. This solution also doesn’t require any surgery other than removing damaged teeth.

Disadvantages of both

The choice between the two depends on your overall dental health, and even though each method has its advantages, they’re not the perfect choice for everyone. Dentures, for example, may be less expensive and use less surgery, but the adhesive used to affix them to your gums is not always reliable and may lead them to sliding and falling out. This issue also increases the risk of them breaking after falling out, needing to replace them sooner than All-on-4s.

On the other hand, implants have their own set of issues. Like regular implants, the rod itself can loosen (known as an implant failure), the gum bridge may feel bulky in your mouth and uncomfortable, and can lead to spitting or hissing when speaking if not fixed properly.

These are just some of the options to consider when thinking about either solution, and we can help you determine which is the best fit for your mouth. Make an appointment today with Dr. Hawatmeh and Bravo Dental Group to find a restorative dental solution that works.