If you have lost some or all of your teeth, wearing a partial or full denture allows you to maintain a pleasant appearance and satisfactorily chew your food. But since artificial teeth are not a substitute for your natural teeth, they cannot be expected to function to the same degree; patience and learning are required.
New denture wearers eagerly look forward to enjoying the foods they love, such as corn on the cob, steak, and gooey frozen desserts, but often find the journey to resuming normal eating habits is quite frustrating. Biting and chewing feels different than before, and the fear of having the dentures slip when eating a meal can keep them away from restaurants altogether.
Before you resume your regular social activities, try these tips to help you adjust to your new set of teeth.
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- 1.Start slowly:
Eating is usually the most difficult part in learning your new dentures. Unlike your natural teeth, which are firmly fixed in bone, artificial teeth only rest on the gums. Don’t be disheartened if you experience a few failures at first.
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- 2. Try to chew food on both sides if your mouth:
When chewing on one side, you may feel the opposite side tipping and loosening. Chewing on both sides will help prevent tipping. But learning to control the dentures automatically using the muscles of mastication in your mouth requires patience and practicing.
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- 3.Develop new chewing habits:
With some dentures, it is necessary to increase the height of some of your upper and/or lower teeth to make contact sooner. With such changes, you will have to change your chewing habits because you will now be chewing at a different position than that of your natural teeth.
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- 4. Start by eating foods that don’t require much hard chewing:
It’s better to start with soft foods, such as eggs, puddings, fish, and cooked vegetables.
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- 5.Take smaller mouthfuls and chew slowly and evenly:
Cut your food into tiny pieces that can be easily put in your mouth.
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- 6. Don’t bite off food with your front teeth:
You can try this later, together with eating harder and tougher foods, as you become more skilled in using your dentures. If you want to eat foods that require a strong bite, consider using denture adhesives.
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- 7. Be careful when taking hot foods and liquids to you don’t burn your mouth.
- 8.Don’t let liquids linger in your mouth longer than necessary:
This can loosen your dentures.
Finally, always keep in mind that you’re using dentures. With natural teeth, you bite and pull, but with dentures, you bite and push. For more information, talk to us today!
2 Comments. Leave new
Thanks for this advice for eating with dentures. You mentioned that you may need to change your chewing habits, but you should start by eating foods that don’t need much hard chewing. Maybe it could be good to adjust your diet for a while so you can practice with soft foods often.
Thank you for your tip to chew food on both sides of your mouth to avoid tipping and loosening. My father has to get dentures and he’s nervous about eating, so I told him I’d look up some tips for him online. I will make sure to pass this tip along to him to help him feel less nervous.