Making a set of dentures is a multi-step process that typically requires five clinical appointments spread over several weeks. Each visit builds on the last, moving from a mold of your mouth to a wax prototype you can preview, and finally to a polished acrylic prosthesis shaped to fit your gums and match your face. Here’s what happens at each stage.
Taking an Impression of Your Mouth
The process starts with creating an exact copy of your gums, any remaining teeth, and the surrounding soft tissue. Your dentist fills a U-shaped tray with a soft, paste-like material called alginate, then presses it over your upper or lower arch. Alginate sets in about two minutes, is well tolerated by most patients, and captures enough detail for this initial “study” impression. It’s the same class of material used in orthodontics and other areas of dentistry.
A dental lab pours plaster into that impression to create a stone model of your mouth. Using this model, the lab fabricates a custom-fitted tray that follows your anatomy more closely than the generic one used in the first visit. At your second appointment, your dentist uses this custom tray with a more precise material, often a rubber-like compound called an elastomer, to capture finer details. Elastomers have excellent elasticity, so they can record every undercut and contour in the oral cavity. This “double impression” technique gives the lab the accurate foundation it needs to build a denture that sits snugly against your tissue.
Measuring Your Bite
Once the lab has an accurate model of your gums, the next challenge is figuring out how your jaws relate to each other. This step determines the height of your lower face when your teeth come together, a measurement prosthodontists call the vertical dimension at occlusion. Getting it right matters: set it too high and your jaw muscles will fatigue, too low and your face can look collapsed.
Your dentist places wax rims on the stone models, then has you bite down so they can mark where your upper and lower jaws meet. They may also measure the distance from the tip of your nose to the bottom of your chin, ask you to say certain words or sounds, and compare the results against your resting jaw position. Using several methods together, including facial measurements, phonetic tests, and sometimes old photographs, helps ensure the final denture recreates a natural, comfortable bite.
The Wax Try-In
Before anything is made permanent, you get to preview a wax version of your dentures with the artificial teeth set in place. This appointment is essentially a dress rehearsal. Your dentist checks three things: how the dentures look, how they sound, and how they stay put.
For appearance, they’ll evaluate whether the size, shade, and arrangement of the teeth suit your face. You’ll be asked to smile, talk, and look in a mirror. Phonetics matter too. Certain sounds, like “s” and “f,” are sensitive to tooth position, so your dentist will have you repeat specific words to make sure the teeth don’t interfere with speech. They’ll also assess retention (whether the denture stays seated on your gums) and stability (whether it rocks or shifts when you move your jaw). If something looks or feels off, the teeth can be repositioned in the wax and tried again. Changes are easy at this stage and essentially impossible once the denture is processed into hard acrylic, so this is the time to speak up about anything that bothers you.
From Wax to Acrylic
Once you approve the wax version, the lab converts it into a permanent denture through a process called flasking. The wax denture and its stone model are encased in a two-part metal container called a flask, then placed in hot water. The heat melts the wax away, leaving a hollow mold in the exact shape of the finished denture. This step is called dewaxing.
The lab then fills that mold with acrylic resin. The standard material is polymethyl methacrylate, or PMMA, which has been the workhorse of denture fabrication for decades. It’s favored because it’s easy to shape and tint to match natural gum tissue, strong enough for daily chewing, affordable, and has low toxicity. The acrylic is packed or injected into the mold under pressure, then cured with heat to harden it. After the flask cools on the bench, the technician opens it, trims away any excess material, and begins polishing. The final product is a smooth, gum-colored base with artificial teeth firmly embedded in it.
Fitting and Adjusting the Final Denture
At your last appointment, the dentist seats the finished denture in your mouth and checks the fit. They’ll look at how the denture contacts your tissue, whether the bite feels even on both sides, and whether any spots press too hard against the gums. Minor adjustments are common. Your dentist may use a marking paste to identify high spots, then trim them down with a small rotary instrument. Most people need at least one or two follow-up visits in the first few weeks to fine-tune sore areas as they get used to wearing the denture.
How Digital Dentures Differ
A growing number of dental offices now offer digitally manufactured dentures. Instead of pouring plaster models and manually setting teeth in wax, the dentist captures your oral anatomy with a digital scanner or a single set of impressions, then sends the data to a computer-aided design system. The denture base and tooth arrangement are designed on screen and either milled from a solid block of acrylic or built up layer by layer using a 3D printer.
The biggest advantage is speed. Digital dentures can be completed in as few as two clinical visits compared to the conventional five. Studies also show comparable or better retention for milled dentures. That said, 3D-printed dentures currently have inferior mechanical properties compared to milled ones, and the layered printing process can make it harder to achieve a natural-looking finish. Accuracy of the initial digital impression is another concern. Some patients end up needing the denture relined after delivery to improve the fit.
Immediate Dentures
If you’re having teeth extracted, you may not want to go weeks without teeth while waiting for a conventional denture. Immediate dentures are fabricated before your extractions and placed in your mouth the same day the teeth come out. Your dentist takes impressions while your natural teeth are still present, and the lab builds the denture around a modified model that simulates the healed gum line.
The trade-off is precision. Because the denture is made before your gums have finished healing, it can’t be tried in ahead of time, and the fit is less exact than a conventional denture. As your gums shrink and remodel over the following months, the denture will loosen and typically needs to be relined or eventually replaced with a permanent set.
How Long Dentures Last
Even a well-made denture doesn’t last forever. The bone beneath your gums gradually resorbs over time, changing the shape of the ridge the denture sits on. This can lead to looseness, rocking, sore spots, and tissue irritation. The American College of Prosthodontists recommends that dentures be evaluated for replacement once they’ve been in use for more than five years, though the exact timeline depends on how quickly your bone changes and how well the denture adapts. Regular relines, where the inner surface of the denture is resurfaced to match your current gum shape, can extend the life of the prosthesis between remakes.