A Denture That Clips on and Stays There

Hamilton Smile Studios on 20–22 Brandon Street, in the town centre, fits implant-retained dentures that clip onto implants so they stay still when you eat and speak. Dr Sharma plans the implants on our CT scanner and places them through a 3D-printed guide, usually two in the lower jaw and four in the upper. The consultation is free, and you carry on wearing your existing denture while the implants heal. Our implant-retained dentures page walks through each stage.

An implant-retained denture costs from £8,500 per jaw at our Hamilton practice. ¹ The final figure depends mainly on which jaw it is and how many implants it needs: the lower jaw usually takes two, the upper four. A CT scan, where required, is £160.

Two implants are usually enough for a lower denture, while an upper one normally needs four. Bone in the upper jaw is softer and less dense, so the biting load has to be shared across more implants to keep the denture steady. Your CT scan confirms the number for your own mouth. Now and then a lower denture is planned on more than two, where the bone is thin or the bite is especially heavy.

No, we make you a new denture with the clip housings built into it. Adapting an old denture rarely gives a precise, strong fit, and older acrylic tends to crack around the attachments. Your current denture isn't wasted, though: you wear it while the implants heal, often with a soft temporary lining, and many people keep it as a spare afterwards.

Neither suits everyone: a clip-in denture costs less and comes out for cleaning, while fixed teeth stay in and feel closer to your own. An implant-retained denture is from £8,500 per jaw on two to four implants; fixed full-arch teeth are from £12,500 per arch on four to six. ¹ Fixed teeth need more bone, or angled implants to make up for it, and a bit more effort cleaning underneath. Your scan, your budget and how you feel about taking teeth out at night all feed into it, and we'll lay the two side by side at your consultation.

Take it out morning and night to clean it, and brush the implant heads and your gums while it's out. Use a soft brush and a non-abrasive cleaner on the denture itself, since ordinary toothpaste scratches acrylic. The small nylon inserts that grip the implants wear with use and are swapped at a routine visit when you notice the hold loosening, typically once a year or so. Keep up your hygiene visits so the gum around each implant stays healthy.

Not during the procedure: the area is numbed with local anaesthetic, so you'll notice pressure and some vibration but no sharp pain. Guided surgery through a 3D-printed guide often needs only a small opening in the gum, which helps with comfort afterwards. Most people take paracetamol or ibuprofen for two or three days, and many are back at work within a day or two of a single implant. If sitting in the chair is the hard part, IV sedation is available at £500 per session.

There's no upper age limit; what decides it is your health, not your birthday. We look at your general health and medication, how much bone there is in the jaw (your CT scan shows this), and whether you, or someone helping you, can keep the area clean. Some conditions and drugs, such as osteoporosis tablets or diabetes that isn't well controlled, need extra care in planning, and we'll go through them with you. At the younger end, implants wait until the jaw has finished growing, usually around 18 or later.