Retrospect

Twenty-five years ago dentures were considered a failed treatment by most in dentistry. In school, nobody cared to pick it as their specialty, opting for the white smock mentality of pfms and the image of wanting to be like Willi Geller, or Tanaka.

I remember being asked why I would ever pick removable when I could just as easily have done well in fixed. At the time it was all about the demographics of an aging denture technician population, the growing population of baby boomers and their eventual increased need for removable prosthetic treatment. Im glad that I looked beyond 5 years and made the future realization of the growing need we experience today for removable prosthetics..

With that being said, I never would have ever thought that implant treatment would have pushed removable prosthetics to the esthetic realization we are seeing today. With implant retained or supported prosthetics, emphasis is greater than ever to fufill the promise of the treatment. No longer is just a denture acceptable when coupled with the time and expense of placing implants.
A really cool side effect of all this is that conventional denture treatment is being caught up in the esthetic action as well.