Immediate dentures

Leave the denture in place for 24 hours. The light pressure it applies will help to stop the bleeding and aids healing of the extraction socket.

You may drink straight away but ensure it’s not hot. Don’t swish fluid around in an attempt to clean your mouth. You may drink straight away but ensure it’s not hot. Don’t swish fluid around in an attempt to clean your mouth.

Mild discomfort for the first 48 hours is a normal part of healing. As you feel the anaesthetic wear off, consider taking some analgesic pain relief. Panadol, or Nurofen should suffice. Panadol and Nurofen taken together should control stronger pain. To help reduce swelling and bruising place a cold pack on the area where the teeth were removed. Keep your head up and rest.

There may be some oozing of blood. If you have been given antibiotics, take them as directed until they are finished.

After 24 hours remove your denture. Do this as carefully as you can, as the tissues will be sore.

Gently rinse your mouth with warm saltwater for 1 minute (1 teaspoon salt in a cup of warm water). Lightly brush your denture to remove any food debris or blood while rinsing your mouth, and then place the denture back in your mouth. Do this three to four times a day (particularly after you eat) and continue to do so for the next 3 days. Thereafter, you may remove the dentures as needed for cleaning.

Stitches may have been placed to help your mouth heal. If so, you will need to return to have them removed in 7 – 10 days, unless we tell you differently.

You will need to return to our practice to check healing and to ease sore spots between day 3 to day 7 after tooth removal. It’s important to ensure the denture is worn for at least 24 hours prior to this appointment so that areas that the denture rubs on can be seen. Sore spots from the denture will be due to one of two things:

• The trauma involved with the tooth removal. This should heal quickly and resolve by itself within 7 – 10 days
• Pressure spots from the denture. These can be readily found and adjusted by us – they will not go away by themselves. Within the first few weeks, a number of these adjustments may be required as the denture settles into place.

The new bite may not feel completely comfortable initially. The bite is generally best finalized about a week after insertion – after the dentures have settled into place. Eating may take a little practice. Start with soft foods cut into smaller pieces and chew slowly using both sides of your mouth at the same time.

Initially food may not taste the same, but as your taste buds are mainly on your tongue, this effect will be short lived. Also, avoid very hot food and drinks earl on as your ability to sense hot food and drink may also be affected.

Speaking may require some practice – the lip and tongue muscles need to learn to touch slightly different surfaces than before.  Reading out loud may speed up this process.

If you find that your dentures occasionally slip when you smile or cough, reposition them by gently biting and swallowing.

A well fitting upper denture has the whole palate to support it so it is likely to have moderate to strong suction. The lower denture on the other hand is supported by a U-shaped ridge and has the tongue pushing it around. An initially good fitting lower denture should have reasonable stability, but the lack of suction may see it move around a little in the early stages. Getting used to this movement takes patience. As healing occurs and the gums that the dentures rest on shrink, the dentures will become even more mobile.

After healing is complete and a refit of the inner surface of the denture is carried out, stability should improve. The reason for this is that with time, the surrounding muscles of the tongue, lips and cheeks will help keep it in position.

In the short term, you may use a denture adhesive powder to reduce this mobility until the refit and the muscles gain control.

During the first few days wear the dentures full time, including while you are asleep.  This will reduce swelling, help healing and allow you to adjust to your new dentures and let them settle in.  Thereafter, you should remove them before going to bed. Leave them in water to prevent any cracking or warping. Leaving them out allows your gums to rest and helps ensure oral health.

Even if you have excellent fitting dentures, there are times when an adhesive will help. Do not wear any adhesive for the first 10 days.

Thereafter, for the first month or so, a denture adhesive powder should be used rather than a paste as the denture will fit quite closely to the tissues. As the gums heal and shrink, a denture adhesive paste may become more beneficial.

Denture adhesives expand to fill any gaps and blocks access to bits of food. They can give you more confidence in public and social situations.  You will feel better about eating, talking and even playing sports, especially swimming, which puts the suction of complete dentures at risk when water gets into the mouth.

Denture fixatives work by reacting with saliva in the mouth to develop adhesive properties so a good tip is to rinse your mouth before inserting your dentures.  Press the dentures firmly into place for a few seconds and wait several minutes before eating and drinking.

Your dentures should be cleaned at least twice a day after eating by using a soft bristle toothbrush and liquid soap. A denture brush may make the process more efficient. It should be done over a basin filled with warm water, so that if you drop them the water will cushion the fall. The main purpose of cleaning is to remove the dental plaque and food debris that builds up on dentures – particularly on the fitting surface. Proper cleaning will prevent inflamed gums, or bacterial and fungal infections.

Avoid using regular toothpastes as they can be too abrasive and damage the highly polished, easily cleaned new surface of the dentures.

Avoid using bleaching products as they can lead to weakening of the denture as well as making it look unsightly.  Also, the use of very hot water to soak the denture can weaken the denture causing it to break.

Denture cleaning solutions can help to remove staining and bacteria. Brush your dentures before soaking, to help remove any food debris.  Soak the dentures in the cleaner for a short time and then brush the dentures again.

Most of the healing, and shrinkage of your gum tissues related to this healing, will occur in the first 3 – 4 months after your teeth are removed. Therefore, the denture can not have its fitting surface ‘relined’ until most all of this shrinkage has occurred. For some, 3 – 4 months is too long to wait and an interim reline is sought to improve comfort and fit. A ‘Temporary Soft Liner’ in placed in our practice while you wait. A soft material is bonded to the underside of the denture to immediately improve the fit. There will be an additional cost for this procedure.

When first placed, dentures can feel large and bulky. When gum shrinkage occurs, the dentures can be made thinner and provide correct lip support again.

Healing and shrinkage may occur for up to 18 months and some elect to have a second reline done at this stage. None of the relines are included in the initial fee. For more information on how we go about permanently relining dentures, click here.

Tartar can build up on dentures just as it can on natural teeth.  If plaque is not removed properly, it can react with your saliva and harden into tartar.  Once present you will not be able to remove it completely by yourself and eventually it can make the denture uncomfortable and unsightly.  We can organise to remove this tartar using an enzyme solution in an ultrasonic cleaning machine and thereafter a lab re-polish.

Dentures can also pick up staining – especially if you smoke, or drink a lot of tea, coffee or red wine.  In most cases you should be able to remove this staining with regular cleaning. However, more stubborn stains may take a little more cleaning, which we are able to help you with.

Your dentures are made from materials that are softer than your natural teeth and will eventually need replacing.  Also, your jaw bones and gums continue to shrink after your teeth are extracted, and even losing weight can change the shape of your mouth. This shrinkage is one of the main problems with dentures. Because of this shrinkage, you should plan to have your dentures and oral tissue evaluated once a year by us. A thorough check of all of the soft parts of the mouth is carried out, including the tongue and cheeks, to ensure we spot any infections, mouth conditions or even oral cancer at the earliest stages. We will let you know when refitting of the dentures are necessary as wearing ill-fitting dentures for too long can cause severe bone loss and serious oral diseases.