Things To Know About New Dentures

 

Whether you are trying your first dentures or replacing your current dentures, here are some experiences you may feel with your new dentures:

 

Fullness: It is normal to feel as if someone left a shoe in your mouth. For most people, they now have more teeth than they have had for several years, plus the gum material necessary to hold your denture in place. This feeling of too much will disappear. It is normal to collect large amounts of saliva in your mouth in the beginning. It is like having a mouth full of pebbles. This problem usually disappears in a few hours to a few days.

Looseness: The upper denture will usually tighten within 24 hours. The lower denture will tighten, but may take a few weeks. Actually, it is not so much that they will gain any real suction, but that the muscles and tissues in your tongue, cheeks, and lips train themselves to hold your lower denture in place.

Chewing: Here comes the tricky part. Remember that you were not born with the ability to make the dentures work. The upper denture will usually take care of itself. The lower denture, however, will absolutely try to get itself tangled up with your tongue and turn upside down the first few times you begin to chew. Your tongue is used to having total freedom, especially when swallowing when it dips down and back up.

It is normal with natural teeth for your tongue to gather the food on one side of your mouth and roll it over to the side to be crushed. Before you learn to restrict these movements your denture will come up with your tongue. Get in the habit of cutting your food into small bites. A large size bite will have a tendency to displace your dentures. Begin to learn to check by placing a bit on both sides toward the back of your dentures, and try to mash your food evenly by chewing up and down like a machine. Eventually you will be able to manage almost anything, but it is definitely something you must learn.