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Denture Care
What's the best way to look after my dentures?
Many people ask me what’s the best way to look after your dentures, do I have any denture care tips? Especially how should I clean them. Nowadays there is a wide selection of denture cleaning products, most are available from the supermarket or your local pharmacy.
I would always recommend using a soft Denture brush to clean your dentures, ordinary tooth brushes are much too hard so are likely to damage or scratch your dentures.
For cleaning, use a denture cleaner or paste, such as Sterident. Conventional toothpastes like Colgate are too abrasive and will eventually thin out the acrylic base and cause premature wear and breakage.
And never try to sterilize your dentures with boiling water, this can cause the denture to warp and it can lead to it cracking. So you’ll be much more likely to have to come and see me!
Dentures are delicate items that can unfortunately be easily damaged even when you’re very careful with them. Because they’re generally made from metal or acrylic substances they are not as strong as natural teeth. These materials will eventually degrade and weaken over time as they are subjected to the conditions within your mouth. Combine this with daily wear and tear from talking and chewing and it’s easy to understand how dentures can break.
Eating foods that are too hard or sharp can contribute to prosthesis fractures or denture breakages. In additon, biting down too vigorously on hard objects is also a recipe for denture to breakage disaster. Then add cleaning and handling, which speeds up the damage to your dentures over time. And to top it all, your dentures will always break at the worst possible time!
Listed below are some denture care tips that may help you take care of your dentures:
- Don’t let your dentures dry out – for proper care put your dentures in water or a cleanser soaking solution when not in use. Make sure water is clean and no hotter than room temperature.
- Remove dentures overnight – muscles in the mouth that help to use the dentures need to rest. Plus it’s uncomfortable to have dentures in 24/7.
- Handling your dentures – dentures are delicate so when handling do so over a folded towel or basin of water, less chance of them shattering if they fall!
- Avoid bleach-containing products – using this sort of product to clean your dentures will not only weaken their structure, it will change their colour too.
- If your dentures have metal parts avoid soaking them in solutions that contain chlorine – this will cause them to tarnish and corrosion to the metal can occur.
- If you’re wearing a partial denture, always take it out before you brush your natural teeth. Regular toothpaste is too abrasive and will thin the denture base.
- Don’t scrape your dentures with sharp knives or nail files to remove stains. It will actually create scratches that will make staining worse and create an environment for bacteria to grow.
- Don’t over use denture adhesives. It can lead to bone loss. If your dentures have become ill fitting get them adjusted or relined by a dental technician instead. And always thoroughly remove adhesive after use.
- Don’t rinse or soak dentures in hot or boiling water – they are likely to warp and become mishapen meaning you’ll need to get them remade as they won’t fit properly.
- If you’re using a denture fixant, gargle with warm water before you remove them, this will help to loosen the seal of the adhesive.