Patient Resources from Stoke Dental Laboratory; We are a trusted team here to help!

New dentures are bound to feel strange, even if they have been made to closely resemble your own natural teeth or some previous dentures. You may feel that they are enormous, and that you are making excessive quantities of saliva, also that your speech is not clear. These sensations should lessen over a few days, as your mouth gets used to the feel of the new teeth. You may also feel that it will be obvious to everyone you meet that you are wearing new dentures! Remember, most people that you meet throughout the day take you ‘on face value’. They are interested in you, not specifically your teeth. So don’t tell them there is anything new and it is most likely they will not even realise. People who know you well may notice that you are ‘looking well’, but often they cannot work out what it is that has improved your appearance.

None of us is born knowing how to wear dentures. There are some skills which must be learned and controlling dentures is one of them. Mostly these skills are learned automatically but very occasionally it can be difficult for some people. While the muscles of the tongue, cheeks, and lips etc. are getting to grips with learning how to hold your dentures in place it can be very helpful to use a denture fixative to help things. This is particularly the case with a complete lower denture which relies solely on muscular control to keep it in place. Some people find that fixative gives them added confidence with their teeth even when they have got used to them. There are several different types of fixative, which one you use is very much a matter of personal preference. However, it is important to read the instructions to be sure that you are getting the maximum effect, and remember that ‘a little fixative is good, but a lot is not better’ – too much can be less effective than a small amount used in the right way, and it is also wasteful and very messy! Should you find that you are continually finding difficulty with the retention and movement with your dentures, it may be possible to resolve these issues by placing implants that will provide you with fully retentive and stable dentures. Find out more about dental implants here.

Some speech sounds, particularly ‘S’ and ‘Sh’ are affected by the shape that the tongue makes against the teeth and palate at the front of the mouth. If the position of the teeth is altered slightly, or the palate is changed in shape it can take a little while for the tongue to learn how to make the right shape to make the sound come out correctly. Try reading aloud to practice. Things will improve quickly, but only if you give them the chance to – they will not improve if you keep going back to an old set of teeth. Similarly with eating, it is not sensible to expect to be able to manage very hard chewy or sticky foods immediately with new dentures. You need to get used to the new feel, and how the teeth work for you. So, choose relatively soft tasty foods to start with, and don’t try to eat too fast. Another tip is to avoid piling your plate too high. If hot food gets cold because you’re eating slowly then it’s not appetising anymore. Better to go for ‘seconds’ if you still feel hungry and enjoy the whole meal.

It is very important to keep your new teeth clean. It will help keep them looking good and your mouth feeling fresh. It will also help keep your mouth healthy. It is wise to clean your dentures over a bowl or basin of water, in case you drop them. The water will cushion the fall and help prevent breakage due to impact. Otherwise, the teeth are quite robust enough to withstand thorough cleaning! First brush the dentures all over with a softish brush to remove any obvious particles of food etc. from them. Make sure you brush the surface which fits against the inside of your mouth as well as the surface which holds the teeth. Ordinary soap is suitable for this process, or you can use a special denture cleaning paste, such as Dentucreme. Ordinary toothpaste used for natural teeth can be a bit abrasive for dentures in the long term, so it is best avoided, but is okay occasionally if you find that’s all you’ve got! At least once a day, it’s a good idea to soak a denture in a solution which will ‘deep-clean’ it. New for our patients is RENEW, a denture cleaning product that removes all stains and calculus, leaving your dentures feeling and looking like new. Please ask for information on how to use this product. It is available to purchase directly from Stoke Dental Laboratory. Never use hot water for the cleaning/soaking procedure – over time it bleaches the gum-work of the denture to a lovely snowy-white!

Lots of people leave their dentures out overnight. This may be because they feel they want to, or because their dentist or clinical dental technician has told them they must do so. If you feel you wish to leave your dentures out at night, then by all means do, but make sure they are kept moist overnight. However, you may feel that leaving out your replacement teeth at night is not something that you want to do as your dentures are such a personal item. If so, unless your mouth is being made sore by the dentures and the dentist has specifically advised against wearing them for a period, then as long as the dentures are kept clean, and your mouth is healthy, then wear them when you wish. Just make sure that you have your mouth and dentures regularly checked.

New dentures are made to fit your mouth closely, but because the models of your mouth are made with you sitting still, and there are many different movements of the mouth which occur during normal function (speaking, eating, kissing etc), there may be some parts of the dentures which press on parts of the mouth during function and make the mouth sore. These areas are often only discovered once you start to wear the new teeth. Please don’t despair. All our patients are given an appointment to see how things are going with your new teeth, and it should be possible then to make any minor adjustments to take account of these sore spots which become apparent, so you can wear the new dentures comfortably. In the meantime, don’t leave the dentures in all the time making your mouth sore, either go back to your old dentures temporarily, or wear the new ones just for short periods. It is very important to wear the new dentures to your next appointment with the clinical dental technician, even if you can only put them in a couple of hours before the appointment. Bring your old dentures too, if you have some, but wear the new ones. This is because it will help the clinical dental technician see where the troublesome areas are.

It is important to have your mouth checked regularly, at least annually, even if you do not have any natural teeth. At the same time, the clinical dental technician or clinician will check the fit and continuing suitability of your dentures. Unfortunately, dentures do wear out over time, but because you wear them every day, you become used to the feel of them, and may not notice that they are not fitting so well or working so efficiently. If such dentures are kept overlong, it can be very difficult indeed to get used to a brand-new set eventually, and changes in the mouth can occur which make things even more difficult. It is best to avoid this happening by getting the regular checks required from a clinical dental technician if you are without teeth, or with the dentist if you have any remaining natural teeth. It is also very important to get things checked out by a dentist if you develop a sore spot under your dentures which won’t resolve after two weeks, or if you develop a swelling or ulcer (even if it doesn’t hurt), which fails to go away by itself in two weeks.

It is not always helpful to compare sets of dentures with each other outside your mouth. You may find that there are different numbers of teeth on different dentures, and the shape of different sets may be very varied. Remember that the mouth changes shape after tooth loss and continues to alter slowly over time. Also, one of the reasons for needing new dentures is often that the previous set is no longer working as well as it should. So, it would not make sense for a new set to be exactly the same as an old set, or it wouldn’t be addressing these issues. However, it is always worth while keeping your last set of dentures (if you have some) as an emergency ‘spare’ set. Other sets of teeth which are worth keeping are any sets which you particularly liked in the past because of their appearance or fit, or conversely any sets which were particularly unsuitable. This information could be useful to a dentist in the future, when you need some new dentures, because there may be some design features which work well for you which can be copied in a new set of teeth, whilst changing others.