Dentures are made for restoring missing teeth. Average life span of a denture is about 5 to 7 years. With proper care, the user of the denture can expect a more pleasant and comfortable experience in wearing the denture.
As a family dentist, I would see elderly members of the family and advise them on how to take care of their dentures.
Daily hygiene includes proper brushing and cleaning of the denture. Prefer to use a toothbrush with soft bristle and do not use toothpaste. The ingredient of the toothpaste might be too abrasive for the polished surface of the denture. The polished surface helps to minimize the adherence of food debris on the denture.
Before going to bed, one should take off the denture and soak the denture completely in a cup of water with one denture tablet. The denture tablet will quickly dissolve in the water and its active ingredients can kill off bacteria, yeast and fungi organism on the surface of the denture. Also the water can prevent desiccation of the denture. If the denture is over-dried, it would crack.
Some food and cigarette smoking can cause the denture to stain. Routinely brushing the denture with soft toothbrush can help remove the stain.
Denture is made of sturdy materials like metal frame and hard acrylic teeth. However, it breaks because the elderly people with limited dexterity drops the denture on the floor by accident when they try to take the denture off from their mouth. Thus, I would demonstrate to them howto remove the denture from their mouth. I would tell them to fill the sink with water or put a towel in front of them. Then I would tell them to lean forward and then hold the denture with both hand to gently remove it from the mouth. Just in case if they drop the denture, the water in the sink or the towel would absorb the impact of the falling denture. With this method, nobody would break their dentures.
Denture teeth are usually made of acrylic material and they are not the same as the natural teeth. The front denture teeth are especially subject to wear and tear. Thus, I would suggest to patient to cut food into small pieces and then chew with the back denture teeth.
With times, the denture will have usual wear and the jaw bone of patient may change. Dentist would usually suggest patient to change their denture every 5 years.
Written by Daniel Tee, DDS, MS
Practicing Dentist Serving Tempe, Chandler, Mesa, Phoenix and Gilbert in Arizona
