Denture Care

Advice and tips on caring for your dentures

Cleaning and soaking your dentures are extremely important. Your dentures can harbor all kinds of micro-organisms (critters) if not cleaned properly. These critters can lead to serious sores from calculus build up or thrush (Candidiasis) which will need to be treated with prescription mouth wash.

• Cleaning –Dentures should be cleaned at least twice a day. Using a very soft bristled tooth brush and a non abrasive paste or denture cleaner, gently scour the denture, removing any build up that might have accumulated. Don’t forget your tissues too! A good ritual to maintain is cleaning both your dentures and your oral tissues prior to bed.  Run your soft bristle brush along the oral tissues helps keep them healthy and pink.

• Soaking– Place your dentures in water to keep them moist when you’re not wearing them.  Also, a couple times a week, soak them in a denture cleaning solution or in common household vinegar diluted with water.  Soak for 15 minutes to soften built-up calculus that can then be removed with a soft tooth brush.  Remember, regardless of what you hear, you cannot “whiten” your denture teeth. These teeth are made of highly stain resistant material.  Bleach, peroxide or other abrasive tooth whiteners will only destroy the acrylics making them porous and funky colored.

• Handling– If your dentures are not in your mouth, pay very close attention to exactly where they may be. Dogs LOVE dentures…  Dogs have been known to reach dentures regardless of how high up they have been placed.  When retrieved, your dog will chew your denture to bits or make the great escape with them in mouth, out the door, never to be seen again.  Also, if you’re the type to wrap your dentures in a tissue and put them in your pocket, try to remember they are there when you toss all that tissue in the fireplace.  Mornings and evenings, while cleaning your dentures, be sure to handle them only OVER the countertop with a towel covering it or over a water filled sink. Somehow, when a denture gets dropped, they always seem to land just right, breaking a tooth or just flat out breaking in half (and of course this on a Friday or Saturday).

• Checkups– A visit every 2 years is highly recommended. There’s no charge for a quick checkup for new dentures.  We will check to see how the teeth are wearing and make adjustments accordingly.  To keep dentures at their peak performance level, they may also need to be relined every few years.  Together, the balance of the tooth to tooth contacts and the snug fit of the denture are the key to a healthy mouth and denture longevity.  The idea is to maximize the life of your dentures and ensure that you’re getting the best function they have to offer.