I have had 4 teeth in front removed, and 1 at the side. My dentist is now trying for the second time to have a denture made. I have many allergies to dental materials, and thus the new denture does not have metal clasps, but does have some type of plastic clasps around my back teeth. The denture does not touch my palate at all. It touches parts of my gums, but has a definite gap in the middle of my palate. When I try to say any words with an "s", it makes a lisping sound as the air rushes under the denture. It feels like my mouth is full. My dentist says this is normal, and it will get closer to touching when I have worn it for a while. I know food will get under the denture, and I am worried that I may not be able to eat with it in. I no longer trust my dentist, but I have paid $800.00 already for the new denture, and I hate to just walk away. Many years ago I had a partial denture with only 1 tooth on it, and it touched my whole palate. My temporary denture has been relined, and it touches my whole palate. It is just a "pop in". My dentist says the new denture can not be relined... the material it is made of will not take a reline. Can I demand to speak to the technician at the lab?

What is the partial made of? Usually the part that goes across the palate is metal. Did your dentist take new impressions when making the second partial? Perhaps the impression didn't get to the lab before it dried out. It's important for alginate impressions to be kept damp until poured up as they shrink when they dry.

Hi Flossie,

The denture is made of a white plastic and the teeth at the front have a pink color for the gums. She did take a second set of impressions for the second attempt at the denture. I saw her yesterday, and the denture is now fitting much better, and it does touch some of my palate. However, now that the denture has moved closer to my palate, the attached 4 teeth have moved up higher, and they now appear shorter than they should. I have another appointment next week, and I will be going to the lab, so it appears that my concerns will be answered. Thanks for your response.

I'm happy to hear your dentist is doing what she can to make you happy.

If you still have trouble speaking once the denture is properly fitted, try reciting "the rainbow passage"; it is supposed to be very helpful in pronunciation of different sounds when you have something impeding your speech.

"When the sunlight strikes raindrops in the air, they act as a prism and form a rainbow. The rainbow is a division of white light into many beautiful colors. These take the shape of a long round arch, with its path high above, and its two ends apparently beyond the horizon. There is , according to legend, a boiling pot of gold at one end. People look, but no one ever finds it. When a man looks for something beyond his reach, his friends say he is looking for the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Throughout the centuries people have explained the rainbow in various ways. Some have accepted it as a miracle without physical explanation. To the Hebrews it was a token that there would be no more universal floods. The Greeks used to imagine that it was a sign from the gods to foretell war or heavy rain. The Norsemen considered the rainbow as a bridge over which the gods passed from earth to their home in the sky. Others have tried to explain the phenomenon physically. Aristotle thought that the rainbow was caused by reflection of the sun's rays by the rain. Since then physicists have found that it is not reflection, but refraction by the raindrops which causes the rainbows. Many complicated ideas about the rainbow have been formed. The difference in the rainbow depends considerably upon the size of the drops, and the width of the colored band increases as the size of the drops increases. The actual primary rainbow observed is said to be the effect of super-imposition of a number of bows. If the red of the second bow falls upon the green of the first, the result is to give a bow with an abnormally wide yellow band, since red and green light when mixed form yellow. This is a very common type of bow, one showing mainly red and yellow, with little or no green or blue."