Have you been recently considering, or planning to get dentures? Dentures are a big decision, from a dental perspective, because they mean replacing all or most of your teeth with a complete set of artificial ones. But dentures can be a fantastic solution for mouths that have been heavily damage, or have suffered particularly from aging. If your teeth are in a state of serious decline, dentures can restore normal appearance and functionality to your mouth, and that can be an enormous boon to how you feel about yourself. Of course, above all, pay attention and follow any directions your dentist gives you; but here are some things you might expect, and a few tips that might help with the initial adjustment phase of your new dentured life.
It’s natural for there to be a bit of strangeness, when you first the dentures. They are different from normal teeth, and they will take some getting used to. You probably don’t realize how much your teeth have been ignored by your brain, until you suddenly have a different kind. It may seem like the awkward feeling of dentures is all you can think about, for a short time. That’s okay, dentures basically just take some getting used to, and the best thing you can do is wait, and grow accustomed to your new teeth.
Although dentists do the best they can to design dentures to be comfortable, they will inevitably feel slightly awkward, in the beginning. They are, after all, a foreign object in the mouth. One of the common things that people report when they first start wearing dentures is increased salivation, which is a normal adaptive mechanism in the mouth when it has a foreign object in it. This will pass in time, and until it does, one thing that may help is to suck on some type of hard candy, since doing so normally increases salivation, anyway. This can make it feel like your extra spit is normal, and tasty.
One thing that may take some getting used to is the slightly different size and feel of dentures, compared to natural teeth. Because of the way they must fit onto the gums, dentures can feel slightly larger in your mouth than normal teeth do. People often describe this as a “full mouth” feeling, and it’s one of the many things about dentures that simply takes a little getting used to. If this is causing you to bite your tongue or cheeks, you may need to take it slow, and be more careful with your chewing, for a while. Some people even report feeling a gagging sensation, from feeling that their mouths are full. This isn’t something to be overly concerned about, but if you find yourself especially sensitive, to the point of it being intolerable, then don’t hesitate to ask your family dentist about receiving denture adhesive, which can help the dentures stick to the gums, and feel a bit more natural, at least for the transitional phase.
Another effect that dentures can have that can take some getting used to is with speech. Dentures actually have an impact on how loud your own voice sounds to you, which is a rather strange and interesting side-effect. It turns out, the reason your own voice sounds different to you than it does to other people, or on recordings, is because you hear not only what projects outward into the air, but also what resonates through your bones, including your teeth. So, having dentures, presumably because of the material they are made from, actually amplifies the way your voice sounds to you, in your skull, but not how it sounds to anyone else. So, your voice will be louder to you, but only to you. They can also cause you to be a bit clumsy with your speech when forming words in your mouth, but that, again, will pass.
Another unexpected and interesting phenomenon you may experience when you get dentures is that your brain is so preoccupied with the new stimuli of the strange-feeling dentures, that it pays less attention to the taste, temperature, and texture of food, when you eat. The end result is that for the first few weeks you have your dentures, food can taste more bland than usual, and it can be difficult to tell how hot or cold it is. This really is just because your brain is paying so much attention to the way the dentures feel in your mind that it doesn’t notice the food as much. Strange, eh? Yet again, this shall pass.
As you can see, getting dentures can be a strange and unique experience; in terms of the things we might experience in our mouths throughout our lives, it can be pretty a pretty unusual one. But, don’t let that stop you, the weirdness is temporary, and in the long-run, dentures are great for anyone who really needs them. To determine if you need them, talk to a nearby dentist office about whether dentures are right for you.
Smiles are important. They’re also contagious. Every time you smile it means something, usually that you’re feeling good. But for some people, smiles aren’t as enjoyable than others, because every time they smile, they reveal something about themselves that they very much don’t like: malocclusion. What’s malocclusion? It’s a medical term for what most people would call crooked teeth, or “bad bite,” and for many people, it’s a serious hindrance to their own positive self-image, and well-being. That is sad. If you’re a parent, I’m guessing that you don’t want your child to feel that way. Who would? I wouldn’t wish it on anyone. Yet, the fact is that most people do not have completely straight teeth, naturally. It’s great when it happens, but most of the time, it doesn’t. Sometimes the malocclusion isn’t bad enough for them to care, but much of the time it is, and often what doesn’t seem that bad in childhood, and might even seem kind of cute, ends up being pretty embarrassing later. If you worry that your child might have malocclusion, visiting an orthodontic specialist can help. Orthodontists help correct crooked teeth, and that makes them exactly what your child needs.