Snap-in implant dentures offer a more secure, comfortable, and confident way to replace missing teeth compared to traditional dentures. Instead of relying on suction or adhesives, these dentures attach securely to dental implants, allowing you to eat, speak, and smile without worrying about slipping or discomfort. For many patients, this solution provides a major improvement in daily comfort, chewing ability, and overall quality of life.
What Are Snap-In Implant Dentures?
Snap-in implant dentures are dentures with special fittings that allow them to attach (snap-in) to the dental implants your doctor places. Anchoring your dentures with dental implants allows you to:
- Enjoy more of your favorite foods: By securing your denture with dental implants, patients are able to chew with much greater power and confidence.
- Speak confidently: Speak in front of crowds or amongst friends and family with the confidence of knowing your denture is securely snapped onto your implants.
- Smile and laugh: Express yourself without worry of your dentures falling out.
- Live more comfortably: Dentures not moving as much, less rubbing and chafing.
- Receive better nutrition: Chew food better.
- Requires the least amount of bone: Great for people who have been told they do not have enough bone for implants.
- Reduce bone loss: While a person may continue to lose bone after having their natural teeth removed, dental implants provide stimulation down into the jaw, which encourages the body to continue to produce bone.
- Reduce or eliminate gagging: In some cases, a portion of the palate can be removed, exposing the roof of the mouth, which reduces or eliminates gagging caused by your denture.
- Increased comfort: Dental implants help reduce or eliminate the irritation caused by the movement of dentures.
- Taste your food better: Some patients with implants can have part of their upper denture’s palate removed, allowing you to taste your food better.
Snap-In Implant Dentures Vs. Traditional Dentures
While traditional dentures typically look nice and are the most cost-effective way to replace bad or missing teeth, they can leave a lot to be desired in terms of overall function, stability, and chewing ability.
Shortfalls of traditional (non-implant) dentures:
- Limited chewing power: Very little chewing power due to the movement of the lower denture, usually only 10 to 20% of what a person had with natural teeth. The movements of a denture wearer’s tongue and cheeks continually push and pull on the lower denture, keeping it unstable.
- Speech: Speaking can be difficult due to the movement of the lower denture.
- Embarrassment: Caused by the inability to eat around other people, laugh loudly, and converse confidently due to fear of dentures becoming loose and falling out.
- Discomfort: Since traditional dentures, especially lowers, often move around, they can rub and chafe the gums, causing irritation and discomfort.
- Poor nutrition: Due to the loss of chewing power, patients may be unable to eat a balanced diet and chew food sufficiently for proper digestion.
- Bone loss: After a person’s teeth are removed, they typically lose a great deal of bone and will continue to lose it for the remainder of their life, meaning that traditional dentures become more and more difficult to wear over time.
- Gagging: Traditional upper dentures cover the roof of the mouth to provide suction and stability. Unfortunately, for many people, the denture covering the roof of their mouth causes them to gag. Trimming the denture to reduce this gagging leads to a decrease in stability and loss of natural suction.
Snap-in implant dentures help to improve all of these issues tremendously.
Am I A Candidate?
Most patients are candidates. We will just need to see you for a quick consultation to say for sure. At this appointment, we will take a three-dimensional scan of your jawbones, the doctor will perform an oral examination of your mouth, and they will go over your medical history in detail with you.
How Many Implants Will I Need?
- Upper: An upper implant denture requires at least four implants.
- Lower: A lower implant denture requires at least two implants, although three or four typically provide a significant improvement in retention and stability.
Snap-In Implant Dentures Cost
This pricing is the best in the area while also providing the best final result. We are able to achieve this by having a highly trained dentist who performs the entire procedure from start to finish, along with a highly trained in-house dental lab technician. They have performed this procedure from start to finish together more times than they can count.
Lower
- Replaces all of your bottom teeth with a secure denture held in by two dental implants. $5,999 or starting as low as $135/mo.
- This price includes two dental implants, abutments, snaps, and the snap-in denture. It does not include the price of extraction.
- Includes 5-year warranty.
Upper Or Lower
- Replaces all of your top or bottom teeth with a secure denture held in by dental implants. $8,999 or starting as low as $160/mo.
- This price includes four dental implants, abutments, snaps, and the snap-in denture. It does not include the price of extraction.
- Includes 5-year warranty.
Upper & Lower
- Replaces all of your top and bottom teeth with secure dentures held in by dental implants. $16,998 or starting as low as $350/mo. Optional $ 4,000-per-arch upgrade to a zirconia final bridge.
- This price includes eight dental implants (four upper, four lower), abutments, snaps, and your snap-in dentures. It does not include the price of extraction.
- Includes 5-year warranty.
We all know brushing and flossing make our mouths feel great. But, brushing and flossing do more than freshen breath – they physically disrupt the complex network of bacteria called a biofilm. It’s important to disrupt and remove the sticky film so diseases like cavities and gum disease are less likely to happen. There are a lot of products on the market that claim they are the best. Make sure to talk about the options with your hygienist to get the best recommendation.
And as you know, it is important to brush twice a day for at least two minutes, and floss once. If you have a hard time remembering to floss, connect it with a daily activity you always do. You can floss in the shower or while driving to work!
Besides having your teeth cleaned and stain polished off, our comfortable dental cleaning also provides other preventative services, such as:
- Dental sealants: Deep grooves and pits in your back teeth are at a higher risk of cavities. Placing a protective sealant over these surfaces makes them easier to clean and lowers your chances of developing tooth decay.
- Fluoride treatment: Fluoride strengthens tooth enamel, fights sensitivity, and reverses the earliest stage of tooth decay (demineralization). Dental insurance typically covers fluoride treatments for children, but our adult patients can take advantage of the service for only $29.
- Oral cancer screenings: This deadly disease is linked to viruses like HPV, sun exposure, and tobacco/alcohol use. Early screening could save your life. We complete a cancer exam as part of every checkup appointment.
- Diagnostic x-rays: Intermittent x-rays allow us to identify new areas of decay or bone loss around your teeth so that we can treat them in the least invasive manner before they become worse.
Available Financing & Payment Options
Dental implants are an important investment in yourself, and having the option to break this investment down into monthly payments can help make these life-changing services more accessible and easier to fit into your budget. We work with multiple financing providers to offer payment plans to cover either all or part of your dental implant procedure in Gallatin, TN.
Proceed Finance
- Longer-term options for lower payments (up to 96 months).
CareCredit®
- Interest-free up to 12 months.
- Longer-term options for lower payments (up to 60 months).
- The option to apply with a co-applicant increases the chance of approval.
Snap-In Implant Dentures Procedure Timeline
The process typically takes around six months from start to finish.
After any remaining teeth are removed and any other necessary oral surgery procedures are performed, the implants are placed into the jawbone. After this, the implants are typically not visible. They will remain in your jaw untouched for at least four months while your bone attaches to them (osseointegration).
We will see you back for a quick post-operative appointment, which we usually schedule for the day after your procedure. At this appointment, we will evaluate your mouth, ensure that any dentures are fitting as comfortably as possible, and answer any questions you may have.
Soft liners are cushions that we place in your denture periodically as you heal. They fill in the spaces between your gums and dentures that are created as you heal, and they also give your gums some cushioning. They help your dentures fit and feel better.
This is a smaller surgical procedure where we expose the implants and place small healing abutments on top of them to properly shape your gum tissue and prepare you to finish your snap-in dentures.
We will change out your healing abutments for your denture abutments and perform the steps necessary to attach your dentures to your implants. This step can usually be done in one day, but sometimes it can take slightly longer.
Frequently Asked Questions
An upper implant denture requires at least four implants. A lower implant denture requires at least two implants. The more implants you have, the more stable your denture will generally be. This is especially true with the lower denture. Three or four implants in the lower is usually much better than two.
In many cases, yes. We will just need to see you for a free consultation, during which we will do a 3D CBCT scan of your jaw to see if you have enough bone for dental implants.
No, we must allow time for your implants to integrate with your bone. This is what makes your implants truly stable and will help ensure you enjoy many years or decades of use out of them. We typically wait between four and six months before attaching to your implants.
While experiences will vary, you should expect some discomfort and possibly swelling after your procedure. Many patients come in the next day for their post-op appointment, reporting very little discomfort. You will be prescribed pain medication to help alleviate any discomfort.
We do not currently put patients to sleep; however, we do offer oral conscious sedation. This medication will help to relax you and often makes it so you do not even remember your procedure. For this, we write you a prescription, and you can pick it up at your pharmacy of choice.
Note: You must have a driver for this procedure. You must not operate a motor vehicle or any machinery after taking your medication.
Yes. They are much more secure than dentures alone, and we are able to increase the retention with stronger inserts if you prefer.
It depends. Ideally, we would need to spread the dental implants out to be able to remove a portion of the palate in a snap-in denture. With our All-On-4 procedure, we can guarantee the ability to remove the palate, but that is not always the case with snap-in dentures. When we are able to remove the palate, this increases the ability to taste for many patients and increases hot and cold sensitivity, making for a more natural experience.
Typically, one to two times per year. This will depend on how many implants you have, how strong your bite is, how frequently you take your dentures in and out, and several other factors. Please do not bite your dentures into place on your implants, as this will wear out your inserts significantly faster. Only place your implant dentures in by hand.
Alveoloplasty is a procedure where the doctor contours your jawbone. This procedure is important because it can significantly improve the fit and comfort of your dentures.
Tori are bony knots that develop in the mouth of many patients. They are not harmful; however, they can prevent your dentures from fitting comfortably, so your doctor will often recommend having them removed.
This is completely normal when you first have a prosthesis placed in your mouth. Your body senses it as a foreign object and is trying to flush it out. This increased salivation should subside within two to three days.
Significant bleeding will have stopped before you leave the clinic; however, expect to have some slight bleeding for one to three days after the procedure. An old home remedy that still works really well to help clotting and stop bleeding is the use of tea bags. Just get a regular tea bag, get it damp, squeeze out the excess water, place it on your extraction site or sites, and the bags will help you clot. Multiple tea bags can be used if needed.
Yes, any prosthetic in the mouth will get some amount of food under it. The great thing about implant dentures is how easy they are to clean. Just take them out, clean the dentures, your gums, and implants, and snap them back in.
Every patient is different. Some return to work the next day, others wait a week or two. Since there is always the chance of bruising and swelling and you will need to get used to eating and speaking with your new teeth, the longer you can take off the better.
While titanium dental implants do have a 95%+ success rate, yes, they can still fail. Some of the things that can cause them to fail include failure to integrate into the bone, smoking, and diabetes. If an implant fails within the first year, your dentist will replace it at no charge to you.
- Snaps: Periodically, you will need to change out the snap rings in your implant dentures as they wear and lose retention over time
- Cleanings: Just like with natural teeth, you will need to have your implants cleaned periodically
- Periodic re-fittings: Your mouth will still change over time, so your dentures will need to be re-fitted to ensure their best performance
- Home maintenance: Take your dentures out one to two times per day and brush them with a denture brush or very soft-bristle toothbrush. Also, clean your implants with a very soft dental brush
- Ice packs
- Wash cloths you do not mind throwing away
- Comfortable clothes you do not mind throwing away
- Soft foods such as soups, yogurt, cottage cheese, smoothies, protein shakes, eggs, and mashed potatoes
Find Out If You Are A Candidate For Snap-In Implant Dentures In Gallatin, TN
Answer the following questions to learn more about our pricing and financing options, or call our office today to schedule your consultation at Sumner Dental Group in Gallatin, TN.