The way that dentures are being made and the added functions that they perform have allowed them to go past the perception of being useful only to geriatric patients. However, just as images of dentures being submerged in a glass of water on the bedstand come to mind when the topic of dentures are brought up, taking care of these dental prosthetics is an extremely important issue to their wearers.
Denture Care
There are two reasons for why you ought to take religious care of your dentures. Not only will doing so stretch the life of your dentures and stave off added costs of getting a brand new pair of dentures, but being particular with denture care also allows you to preserve your oral health and keep any of the remaining teeth you may have or at least prevent gum infections from developing.
Taking care of your dentures occur in two phases — by scrubbing with the help of a toothbrush and then by soaking the dentures in a solution that is specifically formulated to cleanse and disinfect the same.
Step 1: Denture Brushing
The Tool. You can make use of your old toothbrush in order to scrub your dentures or you can also make use of commercially available denture brushes. Regardless, the tool that you use should be capable of reaching into the nooks, crannies and other tight spaces within your dentures.
Wet vs Dry Dentures. Before you can begin brushing your dentures, it’s always wise for you to soak your dentures is water for a short while in order loosen and rinse off any dental debris which may have stuck to your dentures. Water also acts as some form of lubricant to prevent the bristles of your brush for inadvertently damaging your dentures.
Denture Toothpastes. You can use denture toothpaste or cream to help clean your dentures but this isn’t necessary since it’s the effectiveness of the scrubbing which helps to remove debris and not the cleaning product use. On the other hand, don’t make use of toothpaste to clean your dentures since the abrasives commonly found in most toothpaste formulations can damage your dentures.
Be Careful. Please take note that is during these scrubbing sessions when dentures are most likely damaged. When dentures fall from significant heights, such as when you’re working your sink, they can break. To prevent this from happening, you can fold a towel more than once and place it over the sink to cushion the blow should your dentures fall off while you’re cleaning them.
Step 2: Denture Soaks
You need to soak your dentures overnight in order for you to disinfect the same and get rid of microorganisms which may have inhabited your dentures the entire time that you had them on. At the same time, your gums can take this entire time to breathe and be soaked with your saliva, which helps to curb the growth of bacteria and other pathogens on your periodontal tissues. You can always pick out from a long line of commercially available dental soaks or make your own denture soak.
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