Dentures Provide Wearers With Many Benefits
While your teeth are extremely strong parts of your body, they are not indestructible. If you do not properly take care of them by brushing your teeth twice a day, flossing daily, and regularly visiting your dentist every six months for a dental exam, they can begin to rot and fall out. Even if you take appropriate care of your teeth, their health begins to wane with age. Not even good oral hygiene can stop aging. When people begin to lose their teeth, it leaves an impact on them, both mental and physical. After all, your teeth serve many purposes.
The most obvious is that your teeth help you eat by breaking down your food. However, your teeth are also a crucial part of your speech. Without them, you can’t make specific sounds each letter makes. Additionally, teeth that are loose or have fallen out can impact your mental health, as well. Over half of Americans feel insecure about their teeth. Many of those people have missing teeth. However, there are ways your dentist can help.
Dentures are one of the most common dental implant services offered by dentists around the world. They help replace missing teeth, allowing you to feel confident about your smile again. If you or a loved one has been struggling with missing teeth, contact Cosmetic & Family Dentistry of Las Colinas to learn if dentures are right for you.
What are Dentures?
As we previously stated, dentures are one of the most common dental implant services offered by dentists. Their sole purpose is to replace missing teeth. They are removable, helping replace either a single missing tooth or many. Because of this, there are different kinds of dentures:
- Conventional: Also referred to as full dentures, these replace most or all your teeth, depending on if you have a few healthy teeth remaining. Your dentist will place them over your gums once they remove your remaining teeth once your gums have healed.
- Immediate: These are removable dentures that your dentist places the same day they extract your remaining teeth. Your dentist will model and measure your jaw in the initial visit. This allows you to have teeth during the healing period, but your dentist may need to realign or remake your them once you’ve healed.
- Overdenture: Some people may only be missing one or two teeth with mostly healthy teeth remaining. Partial dentures are used to replace those missing teeth by hooking onto your healthy teeth to fill the gaps of missing teeth. Their base helps secure your false tooth while allowing it to blend in with your gums and other teeth.
Nearly one in five adults over the age of 65 have lost all their teeth. Complete tooth loss is twice as frequent in adults 75 and over than adults 65-74. Tooth loss doesn’t just occur in elderly individuals. Many young people can experience it, as well. While dentures are designed to last a long time, they aren’t indestructible. They often last anywhere from 5-8 years before you should replace them.
Edentulism
Edentulism is a word that you will frequently hear when you are discussing dentures. It is tooth loss that affects adults and seniors. Partial edentulism means you’ve lost just a few teeth, while complete edentulism means all your teeth are gone. Roughly 40 million Americans are missing all their teeth, while an estimated 178 million Americans are missing at least one tooth. Roughly 90% of those with edentulism have dentures.
Cleaning Your Dentures
While dentures are not your real teeth, that does not mean you don’t have to practice good oral hygiene. Even without teeth, you should use a soft-bristled toothbrush to lightly brush your gums, tongue, cheeks, and the roof of your mouth before placing your dentures in to remove any bacteria, plaque, or food particles.
At night, you should do the same thing. However, you should also make a habit of brushing your dentures like your regular teeth. Plaque and food particles can still build up on them. It also helps prevent staining. Always rinse them before brushing to remove any loose food. When you aren’t wearing them like overnight when you sleep, you should place them in warm water, so they don’t dry out and become misshapen. You may also add a little bit of denture cleaner to this water to help.
Make sure you only use a mild soap or denture cleaner when brushing them with a soft-bristled brush. Electronic toothbrushes, regular toothpaste, and other cleaners may be too abrasive for your dentures and may ruin them.
Benefits
Many people across the country struggle with missing teeth. While to some, this may not seem like an issue, it causes many problems for individuals. It affects how they eat, how they talk, and how they feel about themselves. There are several benefits of having dentures, such as:
- They help you eat foods that you couldn’t without teeth.
- Boosts self-esteem by improving your smile.
- Losing all your teeth causes your facial muscles to sag, making you look older. Dentures fill out your profile by supporting your facial muscles.
- Your teeth help you speak. Without them, you cannot do so as effectively. Dentures help improve your speech.
- Thanks to advances, most dentures are comfortable to wear.
As you can see, there are countless benefits to having dentures. You must remember that they won’t help out right away. There is an adjustment period for those that have never worn them before. They may feel loose at first because your muscles in your mouth and face haven’t learned how to keep them in place yet. You should expect to experience mild soreness and irritation. Your saliva production may also increase. However, the longer you wear your dentures, the more accustomed you will become. These issues will go away, and you can enjoy the full benefits of your dentures.
Millions of individuals across the country are missing at least one tooth. If your missing teeth are causing you issues or affecting your self-esteem, contact Cosmetic & Family Dentistry of Las Colinas to learn how dentures can help you.
