Health and Wellbeing

After your new dentures are fitted - the results, the up's, the down's

Health & Wellbeing
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As with anything, if in doubt, ask your Doctor for advice.

After Care & getting used to dentures

The first few days after having your new denture's put in are going to be roller coaster days, so I'll do the negatives first....

For many years maybe, your mouth has been free of anything but teeth, no matter how many.
Your tongue has had 'x' amount of space around it before it hits anything.
Suddenly, this is changed and it does feel quite restricted and you have a tendancy to gag a little.
All this recedes after a few days and the tongue seems to find it's way round better all the time.

Having these 'objects' in your mouth means that food and drink does not get to a stronger taste part as quickly. This also makes it difficult to judge temperature, so be careful.

It's a bit like having a baby around - soft food - mashed food - crumbly food - normal food.
I started off with soups, then progressed onto baked beans, Quiche and Shepherds Pie. Because I normally 'eat for England', I had some quite strange deserts of crumbled Scones with Custard, Rice Pudding.

The no-no's were lettuce, cabbage, potato skins and biscuits. Some things you can get away with by simply breaking the food in your hand before putting it in your mouth.

When you eat, you may find your dentures slip, so ask the Dentist when it will be OK to put some adhesive on them.

Eating and chewing on both sides of the mouth will not only help slipping, but will stop you dribbling (maybe) plus ease any pain where you may have had teeth extracted.
As far as speech goes, I was surprised how easily I adapted. If I've taken them out for a while, I tend to whistle a little for a couple of minutes, but then it goes.
If whistling persists, see your Dentist who may be able to adjust or offer you advice on tongue shaping etc.

Whilst the dentures and gums are finding themselves, you may get ulcers which can be most annoying. You can use Bonjela, but have to leave your dentures out for half an hour. But consult your Dentist, who will probably adjust the area a bit.
After this, the symptons go pretty quickly.

Also ask your Dentist when you can take them out and for how long. The gums are shrinking and healing rapidly and leaving them out too long, could mean re-alignment etc.

On the follow up appointment side, they will probably see you about three times stretched over three weeks (this should not be extra cost). You can then tell the Dentist exactly where the tender spots are and he will either adjust or give you medication to stop the problem.

Seven days after I had the treatment, I went to a function. I couldn't eat anything, but boy, did I look and feel good!

It's when you sip a drink and it doesn't hurt anymore - that's when you know the money and pain was worth it!

'Treat having dentures as a new beginning. Some taste buds will change, some for the better. Explore them and find new enjoyment"
               Anon

After that, it's normally about a three month wait for your gums to reduce to their permanant level and you can have the dentures re-lined for a firmer and more comfortable grip.
During this time, they will get looser and adhesive paste or strips will almost certainly be required.

It is also good to experiment with all the different denture-care products. You may find that one adhesive leaves a taste, oozes more etc.
For manintaining them, it is more difficult than normal teeth. Nature won;t mend anything that goes wrong with them, so they must be cleaned on a regular basis to remove any bacteria or simply food getting underneath.

But it's all worth while and within days of getting mine, I didn't get one negative comment. Everyone spoke about how much better I looked around the cheeks, even my eye's seemed to sparkle again.

Certainly I feel better and it's not because of vanity!!

See it as an on-going Training Course, learning as you go. Trial and error maybe, but all's well that end's well!