Immediate Dentures: Fitted the Day the Teeth Come Out

Published Sep 24, 2026 · every source on it read the same day

An immediate denture is made before the extractions and fitted on the same day the teeth come out, so there is no stretch of time without them. That is the whole appeal, and it is a real one. The cost of it is that the denture was built to a mouth that is about to change shape underneath it.

The ADA's own patient guidance sets the two routes against each other directly. A conventional denture is "made and placed in your mouth after the remaining teeth are removed and tissues have healed, which may take several months". An immediate one goes in on the day — and, in the ADA's words, "may need to have the denture relined or remade after your jaw has healed".

What happens, in order

Impressions and measurements, before anything is removed. The denture is designed from the mouth as it is, plus the dentist's judgement about what the ridge will look like once the teeth are gone.
The laboratory makes it while you still have your teeth.
Extraction day. The teeth are removed and the denture is fitted in the same appointment.
A review, usually within a day or two, to look at how it is sitting.
Adjustments, as often as the settling needs them.
A reline, or a remake, once the ridge has settled — the ADA's wording above, and the reason this is budgeted rather than resented.

Why the reline is in the plan from the start

The ridge under a denture changes shape. The NHS puts it plainly in its general denture guidance: dentures "may become loose as your gums and jawbone shrink or change shape". After a set of extractions, that change is at its fastest, which is exactly when an immediate denture is being worn.

So a denture that fitted on day one will not fit the same way some months later. That is not a fault in the appliance and it is not something the dentist got wrong — it is the reason the sequence has a reline in it.

The published schedules treat relines as ordinary, priced work. A laboratory reline of a complete denture is $100.00 on Pennsylvania's Medical Assistance Program Dental Fee Schedule effective 1 August 2026, $316.16 on Montana's denturist schedule effective 1 July 2025, and $325.16 on the Washington Department of Corrections schedule effective 1 January 2025, all read on 24 September 2026. A chairside reline is cheaper in the two schedules that list one: $70.00 and $237.12. Pennsylvania will pay for one reline every two years, and not until 180 days after the denture was fitted — a limit worth knowing before assuming the first one is covered.

What the appliance itself costs

Montana's schedule prices an immediate full upper denture at $1,086.80, against $988.00 for a conventional one — about $99 more. Pennsylvania pays $525.00 either way. The Washington schedule has no immediate denture line at all.

The extractions are separate everywhere. Pennsylvania's schedule pays $65.00 per extracted tooth, whether or not bone has to be removed, and each tooth is its own line. The full picture of how those bills stack is on what dentures cost, read off published fee schedules, and the extraction-day sequence has its own chapter in what a full set with extractions actually involves.

The first weeks, honestly

The ADA says new dentures "may feel awkward for a few weeks until you become accustomed to them", and names looseness and "minor irritation or soreness" among the ordinary early experiences. With an immediate denture that happens on top of healing from extractions, so it is a busier few weeks than with a conventional one.

Practical things that are not treatment advice and cost nothing:

Keep the review appointments, including the ones that feel unnecessary. They are where a sore spot is caught before it becomes an ulcer.
Eat soft, cut small, chew on both sides. Speaking and eating both take practice.
Follow the dentist's own instruction about leaving the denture in. After extractions, that instruction may be different from the general advice — it is one of the few times a denture may be left in for a set period, and only the dentist who did the extractions can tell you what applies.

What not to do, in any circumstances

Do not adjust it yourself. Filing, sanding or trimming a denture that rubs changes where load lands and cannot be undone. The sore spot is what the adjustment appointment is for, and on two of the three schedules we read it is a $20.00 or $47.42 line.

Do not treat adhesive as the fix for fit. The FDA's page on denture adhesives is explicit: "a large amount of denture adhesive will not necessarily address problems with ill-fitting dentures, and prolonged use of ill-fitting dentures may lead to an increase in bone loss." The same page notes that overuse of zinc-containing adhesives, particularly alongside other sources of zinc, "can contribute to an excess of zinc in your body", and that excess zinc "can lead to health problems such as nerve damage, especially in the hands and feet". A denture that has stopped fitting needs an appointment, not more paste.

Do not wait out the things on the list at the top of this page. A swollen face or neck, a fever arriving with the pain, breathing or swallowing that has become hard, bleeding nobody can stop, a sore patch still there after three weeks: each of those is a same-day medical problem rather than a settling-in problem.

Immediate dentures, answered

How long do you wear an immediate denture before it is relined?

That depends on how fast your own ridge settles, and no page can tell you. What the ADA says is that an immediate denture "may need to have the denture relined or remade after your jaw has healed"; what the schedules show is how payers ration it — Pennsylvania will not pay for a reline until 180 days after the denture was fitted, and then only once every two years. Your dentist decides the timing from what the ridge is doing.

Do immediate dentures cost more than conventional ones?

On one of the three schedules we read, yes, and only modestly. Montana prices an immediate full upper denture at $1,086.80 against $988.00 for a conventional one, about $99 apart. Pennsylvania pays $525.00 for either. Washington's schedule does not list immediate dentures at all. The bigger difference is not the appliance fee but the reline that follows it, which is its own separate line everywhere.

Can you see what an immediate denture will look like before extraction day?

You can usually see a try-in, but not the final result in your own mouth, because the shape of the ridge it will sit on does not exist yet. Ask the dentist what will be shown to you and when. Any photograph of somebody else's result tells you about that mouth and that laboratory, not about yours, which is why this site publishes no before-and-after pictures.

Is an immediate denture painful?

It involves extractions, so there is a recovery, and the ADA describes "minor irritation or soreness" as ordinary with any new denture. What is not ordinary is pain that is getting worse rather than better, swelling of the face, a fever, or bleeding that will not stop — those need same-day medical help. Nothing on this page is treatment advice, and nobody here is qualified to tell you what to take.

Prices for everything named here are set out, schedule by schedule, on what dentures cost, read off published fee schedules. If some of your own teeth are still sound, start instead with partial dentures and what holds them in. Neither page is a diagnosis, and neither replaces an examination.