Common Problems for Denture Wearers
Your dentist at MidtownDentistry in Houston, TX can help you deal with common denture problems to help make your denture experience pleasant.
They can help you with:
Premature Denture Aging: New dentures can make you look and feel younger by straightening and lengthening your face.
Poor Denture Fit: Excessive friction between the soft tissues and the dentures resulting in sore spots that may become infected is caused by improper fitting or loose dentures.
Poor Ability to Chew with Dentures: Teeth that don’t function effectively or a denture that doesn’t fit can cause difficulty when chewing food. Many nutritious and harder-to-chew foods may be eliminated from the diet as a result. In these cases, overall good health and digestion are affected.
Unnatural Aesthetics: “Chicklet” teeth that are all the same color and overly dark teeth are signs that a person is wearing dentures. Other signs are “picket fence” teeth, flat teeth, too much gum and too much teeth or not enough teeth showing.
Making You Look Older: Shortening of the denture teeth leads to a shortening of the face which will increase the wrinkles around your cheeks, chin and mouth. This causes you to look older. Over time, the ridge tissue will shrink, no longer supporting the denture like it should, and an unstable denture can make the ridges shrink even faster.
Jaw and Joint Disorders: The jaw mechanism can be upset by improper support and function caused by excessive denture tooth wear and “shortening” of the ridges. In extreme cases, this can lead to a temporo mandibular joint (TMJ) disorder. TMJ causes pain in the neck, jaw, head and/or shoulders.
Bad Oral Hygiene: When food particles get stuck in old or dirty dentures they breed bacteria, which can weaken the denture and lead to bad breath.
Due to the natural changes occurring in the mouth and the porous nature of the acrylic or porcelain dentures, even the best made denture should be replaced every 3 years.
Psychological and Emotional Distress: Unnatural-looking and improper-fitting dentures can make it embarrassing and difficult to eat, speak and socialize.
Common Conditions During the Adjustment Period
Midtown Dentistry, located in Houston, Texas, has experienced dentists who are familiar with all aspects of dentures and the problems that patients may face with their new dentures.
Some common denture problems include:
Excessive Saliva Production: Your saliva glands naturally become overactive when any foreign body, like food, is placed in the mouth. This is a normal part of digestion. In the beginning, your dentures will feel strange, but in a few days will be accepted as a normal presence. Any excessive salivation will decrease to normal amounts within a few days.
Facial Expression: Your normal expressions may seem slightly altered at first. This period of adjustment will get better as your facial muscles and lips learn to relax around the new denture.
Feeling of Fullness in the Mouth: The new denture is at first foreign to your mouth. This temporary condition is perfectly natural. With time, this feeling of fullness will pass as you adjust to your new dentures.
Feeling of Looseness: As you adjust to your dentures, your tongue and cheek muscles will attempt to repel them as they would any foreign body, and these efforts may result in a sensation of loose dentures. In time, and as the dentures settle into place, these muscles will stop trying to expel your dentures and can even aid in holding them in place. At this time, you will notice a definite improvement in the fit. During the adjustment period, it might help to close your mouth and lips and suck gently on your dentures to overcome this feeling of looseness.
Function or Chewing Ability: As you begin to chew with your new dentures, it is wise to be fully adjusted to all other phases. Until your dentures are comfortable you may be disappointed with chewing at first. Once you begin to use your new dentures, try to be persistent and patient with the rate of your progress. Begin with very small bites of soft food and chew very softly. In biting into harder foods such as apples or carrots, try pressing smaller pieces against your front teeth and simultaneously breaking the food off by twisting your hand.
