Porcelain vs. Acrylic Denture Teeth: Why Porcelain Fell Out of Favour

If you have worn dentures for many years, you may remember porcelain denture teeth.
In fact, some patients still have dentures made with porcelain teeth and will tell you how long they lasted.

So why aren't porcelain teeth used as commonly today?

The answer isn't simply that newer materials are cheaper or easier to make. Modern acrylic denture teeth offer several important advantages for the health, comfort, fit, and function of a denture.

A Brief History of Porcelain Denture Teeth
Porcelain denture teeth were introduced in the early 1800s and were a major improvement over the materials previously available for artificial teeth, including gold and other metals.
For the first time, people could have artificial teeth that looked much more like natural teeth.
Porcelain remained a popular choice for dentures for well over a century and continued to be used well into the late 20th century.

Many people who wore porcelain teeth remember one major advantage:
They hardly wear down.

And that's true. Porcelain is extremely hard and can maintain its shape for many years.
But eventually, denturists and dental professionals came to recognize that this extreme hardness wasn't always an advantage.
So What Happened to Porcelain?
As dental materials improved, acrylic denture teeth became increasingly popular.
Today's acrylic teeth are dramatically better than the acrylic teeth of decades ago. Modern composite and high-quality acrylic materials can provide excellent aesthetics, strength, and wear resistance while still having some resilience.
That resilience is important.

Acrylic Is More Forgiving on the Jaw.  Every time you chew, your jaw muscles generate significant forces. Those forces travel through your denture teeth, through the denture base, and into the tissues and bone supporting the denture.

After natural teeth are lost, the bone that once supported those teeth naturally begins to change and gradually resorb. This is one of the reasons dentures can become loose over time.

Porcelain is extremely hard and rigid. Because it doesn't wear or give much under chewing forces, more of those forces can be transmitted through the denture and into the supporting structures.

Acrylic is somewhat more resilient. It can absorb and dissipate some of the energy generated during chewing, making it a more forgiving material for the tissues supporting the denture.

This does not mean acrylic teeth prevent bone loss. Bone loss after losing natural teeth is a natural biological process. However, properly designed dentures and appropriately selected teeth can help manage chewing forces and distribute them more favourably.

Over many years, maintaining a good fit and managing those forces can become particularly important.

Porcelain Can Also Be Hard on Natural Teeth
Another consideration is what happens when a denture opposes natural teeth.

Porcelain is harder than natural tooth enamel. When porcelain repeatedly contacts natural teeth, it can contribute to increased wear of those natural teeth.

Acrylic is considerably more forgiving when it comes into contact with natural teeth.
For patients who still have some of their natural teeth, this can be an important consideration when selecting denture teeth.

Acrylic Teeth Are Easier to Customize and Repair.
Acrylic has another major advantage: it is much easier to work with.
A denturist can adjust, reshape, polish, repair, or replace an acrylic tooth relatively easily. Acrylic teeth also bond directly with the acrylic denture base, making them well suited to modern denture fabrication and repairs.

This flexibility allows your denturist to make adjustments to the bite and appearance as needed.
And when an accident happens and a denture tooth breaks or comes out, an acrylic tooth can generally be repaired or replaced much more easily.

What About Appearance?
This is where modern acrylic teeth have come a very long way.
Many people assume porcelain automatically looks more natural. That may have been true with some older acrylic teeth, but today's high-quality acrylic and composite denture teeth can look remarkably natural.
They are available in a wide variety of shapes, sizes, shades, translucencies, and surface textures.

More importantly, your denturist can select and arrange the teeth specifically for your face, your smile, your age, and your individual characteristics.

The result can be a very natural-looking smile without the artificial appearance that people sometimes associate with older dentures.

Porcelain vs. Acrylic: What's the Difference?
Porcelain

• Extremely wear resistant
• Very hard and rigid
• Can transmit more chewing force
• Can contribute to wear of opposing natural teeth
• More difficult to adjust
• More difficult to repair
• More difficult to replace
• Excellent appearance

Acrylic

• Very good wear resistance
• More resilient and forgiving
• Better at absorbing some chewing forces
• More gentle on opposing natural teeth
• Easy to adjust
• Easier to repair
• Easier to replace
• Excellent modern appearance

So Which Is Better?
For most modern dentures, acrylic teeth are the preferred choice.

Porcelain's incredible durability and resistance to wear made it an impressive material for its time. But when it comes to dentures, a tooth that never wears isn't necessarily the best tooth.

Today's acrylic and composite denture teeth provide an excellent balance of appearance, durability, comfort, adjustability, and function.

And perhaps most importantly, they allow us to better manage the forces created when you chew.

At KW Dentures, we consider much more than simply the material used to make your denture teeth. We look at your bite, your existing teeth, your jaw and ridge anatomy, your smile, and how your dentures need to function in everyday life.
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The goal isn't simply to make teeth that last. It's to make dentures that work comfortably for you!