Dentures Can Improve Your Health and Appearance

Austin's Choice for Cosmetic Tooth Replacement

Can Dentures Improve My Health?

If you have lost all your teeth or several teeth in a row, you know exactly how a lack of teeth negatively impacts your life. You have to live with a restrictive diet of soft or mushed foods instead of a variety of textures and flavors. You may feel embarrassed to speak in public because missing teeth alters your speech. You probably feel self-conscious about your appearance as well. Luckily, a beautiful, durable set of full dentures or partial dentures from your Austin dentist can improve your health and well-being in several ways. Dentures can:

Restore your ability to speak normally without slurring or lisping.
Allow you to eat a normal variety of foods instead of just soft or mushed foods.
Partial dentures help maintain the proper spacing of your remaining teeth, helping you avoid problems associated with drifting teeth such as an increased risk of gum disease and TMJ dysfunction.

How Can Dentures Improve My Appearance?

Your teeth serve a variety of functions, including providing an underlying support structure for your facial muscles. Without teeth, your cheeks and lips sink inward, causing you to look significantly older than you may actually be. In addition, the longer your teeth are missing, the more the bone tissue of the jaw deteriorates. A shrinking jawbone only exacerbates the sunken look of a toothless mouth. Dentures instantly restore the shape of your face by lending support to the cheeks and lips. Many in the dental industry have dubbed dentures the “instant facelift” for their ability to immediately make you look younger and in better health. Looking better and feeling more confident about your appearance can actually have a significant positive effect on your total well-being. When you feel confident about your smile, you tend to smile more. Recent research has demonstrated that smiling can reduce your blood pressure, decrease stress levels, improve your immunefunction, and alleviatedepression. Who knew something as simple as dentures could help do all that?

Don’t Dentures Tend to Look Artificial?

Get that image of your grandpa’s horsey-looking dentures out of your mind. Modern dentures are lightweight, durable, and almost indistinguishable from natural teeth. Your Austin dentist takes accurate measurements of your oral structures that serve as anatomical models for your dental prosthetic. This ensures a custom-fit that reduces slipping and clicking. She sends these measurements to our trusted dental prosthetics lab where skilled technicians use modern materials to create your dentures. First, they blend acrylic powders to form a durable gum-colored base that will rest snugly on your own natural gums. Next, the technicians will secure realistic acrylic or porcelain teeth to the base. The shape, size, and spacing of these artificial teeth mimic an ideal, natural smile. Our high quality dentures possess just the right level of symmetry, evenness, and dynamic coloring to look truly realistic.

How Do I Care for My Dentures?

Establishing a consistent care routine is the most important step you can take in guaranteeing the long life of your dentures. Dentures care should include the following steps:

Brush your dentures daily. Use a toothbrush specifically designed for cleaning dentures. You should also use toothpaste formulated for dentures. Denture toothpastes are gentle on acrylic and can fight the growth of bacteria on the denture surface. Toothbrushes and toothpastes for dentures are inexpensive and widely available at most drugstores and grocery stores.
Rinse your dentures after every meal or snack to help prevent the growth of bacteria that can cause sore spots on the gums and bad odors.
Handle your dentures carefully to avoid dropping them.
Always store your dentures in water when you are not wearing them. Allowing dentures to dry out can cause warping.

If you wear a partial denture, do not forget about the health of your remaining teeth. Follow the above instructions for caring for your partial dentures, but also brush your natural teeth twice every day, floss them once, and visit your Austin family dentist for regularly scheduled checkups and cleanings.

How Do I Get Used to Wearing Dentures?

As with most new skills, getting used to dentures take some practice. If you have never worn dentures before, you will probably experience excess salivation for the first few weeks. Your brain senses a foreign object in your mouth – the dentures – and interprets it as food. This triggers the salivary glands to start working overtime. Many dentists suggest sucking on a sugar-free hard candy to help alleviate the annoyance of excess salivation. To get used to speaking properly, practice talking in front of the mirror, while you are doing dishes or working in your garden, or on your commute to work. Practice in private so you do not feel self-conscious and within a few weeks, you will have become adept at speaking naturally. In order to adapt to a healthy, varied diet, begin introducing new foods slowly. For instance, eat softer foods at first and, every few days, incorporate a new texture. Soon, you’ll be munching crisp, fresh fruits and vegetables and enjoying backyard barbecues with no worries.

Interested in Beautiful Dentures in Austin?

Your Austin dentist, Dr. Helen Ragsdale, can fit your with a pair of comfortable, highly realistic dentures that make you look great and restore your ability to eat and speak normally. Call our Austin dentist office at (512) 346-4690 to schedule an appointment. Austin Laser Dentistry proudly serves patients from Austin, Round Rock, and all surrounding communities.