Tooth and Nail: How to Care for Your Dentures

Having dentures fitted can be a real improvement to your quality of life.  Where you may once have felt self-conscious about your smile and felt unable to eat properly due to sensitive and missing teeth, dentures can give you a new lease of life.  But taking care of your false teeth is just as important as taking care of your real teeth.  Here's a quick guide to help you adapt to caring for them:

Food Debris

Though they aren't organic and as such won't decay like your real teeth, you'll need to wash your dentures after eating to make sure that no food remains stuck on them.  If any crumbs or pieces remain, they could affect the way your dentures fit into your mouth and make them significantly less comfortable for you.  You can clean them once they're removed from your mouth by rinsing them off, or gently brushing them.

Overnight

You shouldn't wear your dentures overnight, both for your comfort and to ensure that the dentures don't degrade through grinding your teeth overnight.  After their daily brushing, they can be stored in plain cold water or with a mild denture-specific cleaning solution.  Whichever you choose, this will help to prevent them from degrading; false teeth are made to be kept wet, and so don't survive as well in dry conditions.  In the morning, be sure to rinse off your dentures before you replace them, especially if you store your dentures in a solution!  This way they'll be perfectly sanitary and safe to wear in your mouth again.

Check Them Over

Both you and a dental professional should check your dentures every now and again to ensure that they're in tip-top condition.  Dentists especially will be able to spot signs of degradation before problems arise - so bring them along to your checkups, and make sure you have them scheduled at least once a year, if not more frequently.  You can also look them over yourself when you take them out at night, taking care to ensure they haven't warped in the shape or fit, and that there's no discoloration.  (Be sure not to use whitening toothpaste to fix this problem, as they can lead to degradation of your teeth.)

So long as you follow these steps, your false teeth should last forever!  They're a great investment for your health, so it's certainly worth putting in the time to keep them clean and well-protected.


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