Immediate dentures are actually used a splints or healing templates to protect the area after the extractions and aid in the healing process. IN GENERAL, I am not a big believer in full dentures unless they are absolutely necessary. I have built hundreds of sets of dentures in my early days as a technician, in the long run I would have to say I have never met a patient with a lower full denture that was happy with it. It stays in place mostly by gravity unlike the upper denture which is held in place by suction formed between it and the palate. It resists lateral movement by pushing against the remaining residual ridge, which in general is uncomfortable. People who loose all their teeth early in life and wear dentures for many decades, often have serious problems later in life. The residual ridge is diminished in size every year that the denture is worn and pressures from mastication are transferred to the boney mandible or maxilla over the years. This causes the bones to begin to become reabsorbed and small under the loading. A point can be reached when there is not enough ridge left to resist the lateral forces of the denture making them unusable. Mandibles can become so small that they are referred to as pencil thin, and can fracture under very little loading. Please note that I am describing a worst-case scenario. These days in normal patients, a pair of implants can be placed in the canine regions of the mandible and a bar fastened between them. In the overlaying denture a clip system is employed to snap to the bar. This idea, one of many over denture retention techniques, solves much of the patient's problems. Having said that, you know that implants in radiated patients do not take well. But they do in people like you. I would explore this possibility with the doctors. If money is an issue, the roots of the two canine teeth can be left in place and a gold post and core can be made to fit them. These can be the retention devices for the over denture, much as implants would be. Snaps, bars, o-ring that slip over a ball like top on the gold post are all better than no retention device at all. Good dental prosthetics is often an issue of planning in advance. Please talk to your doctors about all this, and see what they have to say. I also would not pull any teeth unless they were compromised, particularly periodontally. Once they are gone they are gone.
