You’ve invested in a beautiful smile with new, natural-looking dentures, and a few simple steps will ensure you continue to look and feel your best.
What do you need to know? It starts with good oral hygiene, notes denturist Robert Knight, from Peninsula Denture.
- Daily cleaning: Just like natural teeth, daily cleaning of your dentures will help prevent build-up of food residue, plaque, tartar and stains. Avoiding daily cleaning can lead to mouth odors, problems with the look of your dentures, gum irritation or infections. When cleaning dentures, also clean your gums with a soft toothbrush or washcloth, which removes debris and stimulates circulation to help keep the tissue healthy.
- How to: Rinse dentures under water to remove loose food and debris. After meals, or at least before bed, soak in a solution of denture cleaner and then brush with a soft brush, ensuring you reach all areas of the denture to remove plaque and stains. When brushing, avoid holding the appliance too firmly, which can damage the denture, and clean over a sink half-filled with water or with a towel in the bowl to cushion the denture should it fall. Never use a sharp instrument to try to scrape away hard deposits; instead, take them to your denturist for professional cleaning.
- Soaking: Every day or so, soak dentures in a strong cleaner such as “Renue,” available at the clinic, to loosen or remove stains and deposits, then follow with a water rinse, Knight advises. Avoid soaking or rinsing in hot water, which can distort the appliance. Removing your dentures overnight or for six to eight hours daily is important for gum health, he says, but adds that when not in your mouth, dentures should be kept in water or solution to maintain the proper fit.
- Ultrasonic cleaning: Ultrasonic cleaning, available at Peninsula Denture, can be done during a denture appointment to remove heavier stains and tartar build-up.
- Regular check-ups: In addition to regular check-ups with your denturist to ensure the continued fit and operation of your dentures, regular dental check-ups also remain important to ensure continued health of the gum tissue and remaining natural teeth.
Properly cared for, dentures can be expected to last about five years, but that varies with factors such as the kinds of foods you eat. Soft foods, for example, typically cause less denture wear than hard foods.
Within the life of your dentures, changes in your jaw and gums may require denture rebasing or relining to ensure a continued proper fit, Knight notes. Indications it’s time to evaluate your denture fit include: difficulty chewing or speaking; frequent cheek biting; inflamed tissue; discomfort when wearing the denture; or cracked corners of the mouth.
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Welcoming patients since 1997, Peninsula Denture offers two locations, in Sidney on Fifth Street and in Saanich on Quadra Street.