One-Day Denture Repair Complaints

Dentures are custom-made prosthetic appliances. The upside of dentures is that they are available to people who lose their teeth for various reasons, such as gum disease, decay or injury. They look normal enough if not scrutinized too closely, and they provide the wearer ability to eat and smile again. The downside of dentures is that they are acrylic, thus subject to random breakage. Repairs are easy; waiting for them is the hard part.

Denture Basics

• Dentists make dentures, with the assistance of a dental laboratory. While it is the dental office the patient goes to for impressions, fitting and delivery of the dentures, it is the dental laboratory that makes them. Every part of a denture is acrylic; meaning they are not indestructible. Dropping them, biting into something too hard for the denture to handle or "home improvement" of fit are just some reasons a denture needs repair. Most dentures are repairable, and most dental offices will happily take a broken denture and send it on to a dental laboratory for the repair. Most dentists do not do the repair themselves, and a dental lab will usually keep the denture all day, as they must squeeze unscheduled repairs in between regular daily production.

Good Work Ethic, Yet Still a Complaint

• Nobody wants to be toothless when faced with a busy day of meetings. However, nobody anticipates dropping his denture into the sink while cleaning it, either. Most patients know in the backs of their minds that the dentist did not make the denture on site. They know a dental lab is involved. This gets forgotten when the denture is needed now. Having to spend a day without a denture can throw off the workday in ways someone who does not wear dentures would never understand. It can cost the patient dearly if he is unable to conclude that real estate transaction or give that motivational speech scheduled a year ago. It is unfortunate that this happens. But, if the dentist has a same-day repair policy, tomorrow the patient can be back on the job with a smile.

It's All About Vanity

• Most people would be put off by having to wait for a denture when they would rather be working. However, sometimes the criticism is not from someone who needed to be at work. The complaint is from someone who does not have to be anyplace and could just go home and wait out the day hidden from view. The vain patients are the ones who complain the hardest. Reluctant to leave the denture, she creates reasons why a quick fix is needed; horrified at the prospect of someone seeing her without her teeth. Vanity is so strong in some patients that many hide behind magazines in a corner of the waiting room, never leaving the office, and wait for the denture. It's a good thing that denture repairs in most dental offices take only a day.

The Complaint From the Dentist's Only Patient

• It must be some people are just not happy unless complaining. Perhaps it is a delight to try to see if the dentist will change his rules or whether ruffling the office feathers enough will make the dentist insist that the laboratory drop everything else and tend to this one patient's denture. What the complainer does not notice is that the laboratory does not work for just one patient. A lab can create work for 100 dental offices. They do not deal with the patient; they deal with the denture. The dental office deals with the patient. A lab can only go as fast as it can. With many repairs daily, along with a regular workload of making appliances, it must insist that it keep the denture all day because there is no other reasonable way to go about it.