Perhaps you heard of the benefits of dentures to your confidence and your smile and decided to go for them. You get over the initial discomfort; at first, it feels like you have a foreign object in your mouth and you are always aware of it. There may even be some pain involved. However, soon enough, you get so comfortable that you forget about dentures until time reminds you.
Wear and tear may cause dentures to develop a loose fit. Looseness could also be attributed to bone loss. Patients whose teeth are missing experience up to a millimetre of bone loss per year, which means a shrinking jaw. Whether you have partial or full dentures, if they do not fit, you will experience discomfort. The dentures can no longer distribute bite forces well, and so you will have trouble eating.
What is more, if your dentures do not fit properly, you are prone to infections. The likelihood is that the loose fitting dentures will injure your gum, leaving exposed places. As a rule of thumb, if you notice that your dentures no longer fit, it is time to evaluate your denture cost because chances are, the same set you have will never fit into your mouth again. That said, you can know for sure that your dentures do not fit if you notice the following:
Slipping
You might see this sign before any other. An ill-fitting denture set will move around. It will continuously lift off your gums when you chew or speak. In some cases, the movement might be sideways, but the problem is still the same – retention.
Sores
Once the dentures begin to move, it is a slippery spiral downwards. You start to notice marks on the gums, which become sores the more the dentures move. In unique cases, more so with partial dentures, you may not see movement, just the wounds.
Pain
With the sores, comes a sharp and consistent searing pain from the affected parts of the gum. Pain may also result from the uneven pressure that ill-fitting dentures apply. Typically, if a denture fits well, it can distribute bite forces evenly. Otherwise, some parts of the mouth experience more pressure, hence pain and consequently, faster bone loss.
Trouble when eating
The best fitting dentures bring with them some level of difficulty when eating, especially during the first days. If after you had gotten over the initial discomfort, you begin to experience trouble chewing some foods; it may be that your dentures don’t fit snugly. It is perhaps time to weigh up the replacement denture cost before the condition escalates.
Hard to clean dentures
Cleaning your dentures gets some getting used to. They always get plaque and food particles on the outside. However, ill-fitting dentures will be even more so. They will start getting food and plaque under the denture causing a cleaning nightmare. Note that a proper fitting denture set creates a seal around the gums that prevents food from getting under.
Infections
Without the seal offered by well-fitting dentures, food gets stuck under the dentures. Bacteria begins to grow under the dentures and soon lead to infections. As a pro tip, observe proper denture cleaning techniques even when the dentures fit correctly.
After you notice that your dentures no longer fit, what then? A technician will be able to design for you dentures that fit better. They can look at the changes in your mouth and use a mold, to create you a new set of dentures that will no longer be a health risk. At a small denture cost, they can mitigate any problems caused by the ill-fitting dentures.
To learn more about correctly fitting dentures, speak to the team at Aesthetic Dentures.
