Three Important Things to Maintain Your Tooth Denture

Poor fitting dentures can be painful, causing rubbing and wear against your gums. Anytime you get skin abrasions, you increase your chances of infection; this is especially true in your mouth, which is full of germs. Because you need your dentures to talk, eat, and maintain a facial structure, taking them out while your gums heal is a difficult option. And dentures must be clean, or they can be an additional source of bacteria introduced into your mouth.

The following pointers are important for denture maintenance:

• Dental checkups: You may need new plastic added to the inside of the existing denture to fill the expanding space between the denture and gums due to the receding bone that can occur with aging and wear.
• Cleaning: This helps prevent bacteria from growing on your dentures. Rinsing thoroughly also keeps foreign particles that can accumulate on the dentures from irritating the gums. Don’t use harsh abrasives; use products made especially for dentures. Keep your mouth and gums clean, too, by brushing with a soft toothbrush and toothpaste. And make sure that you use any rinse recommended by your dentist.
• Replacement: Dentures aren’t forever. A denture worn too long can damage the facial appearance and the gums and cause a host of other complications. For example, muscles for chewing and talking begin to shorten to accommodate the decreasing space caused by the receding bone between the nose and chin. The longer a person waits to replace dentures, the more difficult the facial structure is to restore; this results in a sad or aged appearance. If you’re doing routine denture maintenance, but your dentures aren’t fitting well, it’s time to get a brand-new shiny set of the pearly whites.