Information About Your New Dentures

We have done our best to provide you with well fitted, functional, and esthetic artificial dentures. We feel confident that after a few weeks of becoming adjusted to the new dentures, you will have years of satisfaction and use from them.

The following information will be helpful to you at this time:

Your First Few Weeks: New dentures always feel strange when first placed in your mouth. Several days or even weeks will be required for you to feel accustomed to them.

Sore Spots: Usually, your mouth will have a few sore spots after wearing the dentures for 24 hours. Don't worry about these areas. They can be relieved with very little effort on your next appointment. A second appointment about 7 days later will usually eliminate any other sore areas.

Chewing: The new bite or occlusion will not feel comfortable for a period of days. We will adjust the contacting surfaces of your teeth after 24 hours if necessary and again in about one week after the dentures have settled into place.

Wearing Dentures to Bed: Your dentures should not be worn to bed. By keeping your dentures out at bedtime, your gums and jaw bones are given a rest and shrinkage of these tissues is kept to a minimum. Please follow the cleaning instructions given to you.

Upper VS. Lower Dentures: Your upper denture will rest comfortably in place with moderate to strong suction. Although your lower denture will have good stability, it is infrequent that suction can be expected on a lower denture. We suggest that you avoid denture adhesives unless you really have difficulty.

The Future: Your jaw bones and gums shrink up to 1/32 of an inch per year when the teeth are missing. This is one of the main disadvantages of artificial dentures. Because of this shrinkage, you should plan to have your dentures and oral tissues evaluated once per year by us. We will inform you when lining or rebasing of the dentures is necessary. Wearing ill fitting dentures for too long without refitting can cause severe bone loss and very serious oral diseases. We look forward to helping you adjust to and enjoy your new dentures.