5 things to consider while eating with new dentures
Dr. D.Sendhil Nathan MDS, DNB Prosthodontics And Implantology
Denture teeth are the artificial teeth which are made up of plastic and moulded inside the mouth to replace the missing teeth. When the mouth and tongue accustomed to the fake teeth set, the wearer will feel comfortable. Until then, the new denture wearers have to encounter certain difficulties. This is because the facial muscles have to adjust with the prosthetic appliance (Denture).
Eating with dentures is also a tough experience in the initial days. There will be a difference in taste with dentures. Likewise, certain food items lead to denture mobility and break. The denture wearers should maintain a different diet for a few days before they become familiar with the false teeth.
In this post, the diet to be followed along with the essential tips to eat with dentures are discusses. Let us see.
1) Adjust your chewing
Dentures retain the natural appearance of your smile and speaking ability with the false teeth. It cannot effectively restore chewing ability. Hence you need to adjust the way you are chewing and swallowing food. Consider the following things:
• Chew on both sides of your mouth
• Don’t bite with the front teeth
• Eat slowly.
• Don’t keep the food in your mouth for a while.
This is because the denture teeth are not as sturdy as the natural teeth. You have to switch to the new eating habits in the early stages of wearing dentures.
2) Begin with soft and liquid food items
As mentioned earlier, eating with dentures will be difficult in the beginning. It is a wise option to consume soft food items and liquid drinks which are easy to chew for the first few days after getting dentures.
Take a look at the soft food items and drinks suggested by Dentists.
• Cereals like Oats, Ragi
• Curd rice
• Bajra Khichdi
• Mashed potatoes
• Mashed vegetables
• Cheese, Yogurt and other dairy products
• Fruit juices
• Soups
• Broths
• Custards and Kheer
3) Switch to solid foods
When you feel comfortable in eating with dentures after a few weeks, you can consume your favourite foods with limitations. When you switch to solid foods, you need to maintain a mechanical soft diet.
Consider the following tips:
• Whether it is raw vegetables like cucumber, carrot or fruits like mango, apple or others, cut them into small pieces before you eat.
• Eating the fresh vegetables after boiling them in water for a few minutes is also a wise option. When you steam the vegetables, it will soften and make you chew easily.
• If you are a non-vegetarian, then prefer food items like fish, eggs.
4) Stand away from certain food items
You know that foodstuffs and drinks that have an excess of sugar will harm our teeth. Likewise, some food items you take with denture will damage the false teeth set. You should ignore such foods from your diet. Here are some of such eatables are as follows:
• Tough meats
• Sticky food items like chewing gums, caramel, chocolates
• Hard food items like nuts, popcorn
• Grape seeds, Popcorn Kernels and other stubborn pieces present in eatables are hard to chew with the false teeth. It is better to avoid those or eat them carefully.
5) Clean your Dentures after eating
Rinsing our mouth after every meal helps us to eliminate the bacteria present in the mouth. In case of denture teeth, you need to clean it after every meal. This will help you to remove the food debris and other particles stuck between the teeth.
We have suggested important things to maintain while eating with dentures. If you really care the fake teeth set, then follow the discussed things with the denture care tips prescribed by your Dentist.
