What Are Flexible Dentures?


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Flexible dentures, sometimes called soft dentures, offer a solution to the pain and discomfort caused by the rubbing of hard acrylic against the soft tissue of your gums. They do not appear soft, and are called this only because it is the inner lining that is soft. Standard dentures can be adjusted to have a softer, flexible lining. Their inner coating of soft dentures is made of flexible resin that is non-porous so that bacteria cannot thrive on them. This resin is longer lasting than normal dentures. Instead of being held in place with small metal clips they attach to your mouth by hooking into the undercut of the gum ridge. It is the flexible resin part of the denture that hooks into the undercut of the gum ridge reducing the friction between your gums and the hard base of the denture. By hooking into the gum ridge rather than clipping over teeth movement is reduced when chewing tough foods and because there is no adhesive required flexible dentures can adjust to the idiosyncrasies of your mouth with more ease – rather than rubbing up against any irregular ridges in your mouth and causing blisters and sores. This does have its disadvantages as well though: because you will feel less pain you will be less able to identify where your bite is irregular and this may cause bigger problems over time. Flexible dentures tend to be more expensive than standard dentures because the resin itself is more expensive to make.

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