Will I Have To Change My Lifestyle If I Get Dentures? What You Should Know

If you’re getting dentures in Apex to replace your missing teeth, you may be wondering if your lifestyle will change, and what you should expect after your new teeth are ready. Will you have to change your lifestyle after dentures? Find out in this blog from Cardinal Family Dentistry. 

Caring For Your New Dentures

First, you’ll definitely need to change how you care for your teeth. With full dentures, you won’t have any natural teeth remaining, but that doesn’t mean you can ignore dental hygiene. To care for your new dentures, you will need to: 

• Rinse out your mouth and your dentures after every meal
  
• Brush your gums and tongue every night after removing your dentures to remove food particles and debris
  
• Brush your dentures every night with a non-abrasive denture cleanser
  
• Take out your dentures at night and soak them in a denture-cleaning solution to keep them clean and moist. Dentures are always meant to stay moist, so if they dry out, this can permanently damage your new teeth
  

You will also need to schedule routine dental visits with Dr. Sarah Barker at Cardinal Family Dentistry to make sure your gums are healthy and your dentures fit properly. Come in every six months to get the care you need.

Eating With Dentures

Eating with dentures is a bit different than eating with natural teeth. While your dentures will be held in place tightly, and you can use denture adhesive to keep them in place, it will take some time to get used to how dentures feel when you chew and eat.

It’s a good idea to avoid very tough foods like steak or jerky, and very sticky foods like caramel and taffy. Tough foods are very hard to chew with dentures, and sticky foods can pull on your dentures, or get stuck between your dentures and gums, causing irritation. 

While learning to chew with dentures, you may also want to start cutting your food into smaller pieces. Instead of biting into a whole apple, for example, you can slice it up to make it more manageable.‍

Consider Full-Arch Dental Implants Instead Of Traditional Dentures

If you are interested in the benefits of full dentures for restoring your smile, but you don’t want to make a lot of lifestyle changes to accommodate them, full-arch dental implants at Cardinal Family Dentistry may be a good option. 

Full-arch implants use a series of 4-6 implants that are surgically placed into the upper and lower arches of the teeth. Then, a permanent or removable set of dentures is built to snap onto these implants, and it’s held in place tightly.

Generally, caring for full-arch implants is easier than caring for traditional dentures, and there are fewer issues with chewing and eating, since the dentures are anchored tightly in place with dental implants.

So, if you want to avoid lifestyle changes due to dentures, this makes full-arch implants a great choice.

Need To Replace Missing Teeth In Apex Or Cary? Contact Cardinal Family Dentistry

‍Cardinal Family Dentistry is here to help you get the dental care you need in Cary, Apex, New Hill, and Holly Springs. To explore the benefits of dentures and full-arch implants in more detail, contact us online or give us a call at (919) 589-5001 to schedule an appointment with Dr. Barker.