Useful tips for eating with dentures
Dr. D.Sendhil Nathan MDS, DNB Prosthodontics And Implantology
Dentures are the custom-molded in plastic dental appliances fixed to restore the missing teeth. Adjusting with the dentures will take a little time. Until then, the denture wearers feel uncomfortable like excess salivary production, soreness in the mouth. Likewise, those people have to adjust their diet, change how they bite and chew food until the mouth and tongue become accustomed to the teeth set.
Dentists mention this because the food particles can easily be trapped between the minute spaces around the dentures. On the other hand, the fake teeth set is also vulnerable to come out or slip with the extensive pressure applied while biting certain foodstuff.
Fortunately, such hardships can be avoided by consuming soft foods and changing the way to handle foods as the dentures settle inside the mouth.
1) Start with soft food
In the initial stage of wearing dentures, you should intake nutrients without straining the gums and jaw muscles. Otherwise, the denture teeth will be at risk of damage or break. Hence you should take soft foods that do not require too much chewing and biting.
Our dentists have recommended a list of soft foods for people to take after fitting dentures. These are also apt for those who had oral surgeries.
- Idly
- Boiled eggs
- Mashed rice
- Khichdi
- Custards
- Dairy products like milk, cheese and curd
- Vegetable juices
- Porridge
- Mashed potatoes
- Soft bread without grains and nuts
- Soups
You can take beverages like tea and coffee after fitting dentures but you should test the temperature of those drinks before drinking. We state this because the exposure of excess heat on dentures will cause allergic reactions to your mouth.
2) Switch to strong foods
Once the denture teeth settle well in your mouth or you feel comfortable with it, you can eat hard foods like meat. Meanwhile, you should be aware of how much and how fast you are consuming them because excess biting and chewing will lead to the slippage of dentures.
To neglect this, cut the hard food substances whether it is vegetable or meat into small pieces and eat small pieces of those chopped items.
Keep in mind that taking small bites of foods slowly and steadily to satisfy your hunger is an essential thing to safeguard your dentures.
3) Chew equally on both sides
When you feel comfortable with the new dentures fixed, then you can eat chewy food items also but don’t bite the eatables with your front teeth. It will lead to dislodging the fake teeth fixed in the plastic appliance.
White biting and chewing (hard and soft) foods, the pressure applied should be distributed equally over the surface to neglect denture damage. So you should chew equally on both sides of the jaw.
4) Ignore these foods
Even after your dentures accustomed to your mouth, you should not take certain food items. Such food items cannot be properly softened by saliva even if you consume small bites of them. It causes intense pain and stuck under the dentures.
Here are the common food items that you should remove from your diet after getting denture teeth:
- Tough fibrous meats
- Hard bread
- Sticky or Gummy foods
- Spicy foods
Bottom line
Eating with dentures is not as same as eating with natural teeth. You should wait a bit of time and be patient after getting dentures to enjoy your favorite dishes but with some exemptions. It does not mean that denture teeth prevent you from eating certain dishes but you should try them with a new way to consume them.
