​Painful New Dentures

Painful New Dentures

If you have new dentures, either for the first time or the tenth time, more often than not they are uncomfortable. Any new denture will feel alien, bulky and uncomfortable. They may rub against other teeth and gums and leave then raw and sore. Sometimes may cause an ulcer.

About a week after having your dentures fitted you should return to your dentist for a review. At this appointment any adjustments needed should be made so that these sore spots are eased. Remember it will take a few days for these areas to heal and hopefully once healed things should improve.

Dentures are all about patience and perseverance. You should be aware of this before starting any process of making a denture. It can take several review/adjustment visits after the final fitting until they feel 100% comfortable and even then they may still feel alien.

It takes time, sometimes months. Your speech may change and you may develop a lisp. This will require practice before your lips, cheeks and tongue get used to your dentures. Practice saying the days of the week. This will cover all the phonetic sounds used in everyday speech and when you perfect this then your lisp should improve.

Eating will also be an initial struggle so be aware of this and just keep trying. Soon enough they will feel part of your mouth and you wouldn’t be without them. It wont be a walk in the park but it will be worth it. Remember that if you truly feel your dentures are ill fitting don’t be shy, go back to your dentist and say. They have a duty to get them right for you.

David Hurst BDS (Lon)

Fruit and your teeth

Fruit and your teeth

We have all been brought up to think fruit is good for us. Now I don’t dispute this but it can also be harmful. Fruit contains sugar and more often than not, acid. Now I have already mentioned in a previous post what sugar and acid does to our teeth so I wont repeat myself but just to say we need to limit our sugar intake so that we are not subjecting our teeth to regular sugar and acid attacks.

Some fruits are worse than others. Citrus fruits, for example, are packed full of acid and sugars. Whether is be eating an orange or have a juice, this will attack our teeth and cause decay and erosion.

Limit the intake to meal times only and ideally one meal a day. You will get adequate vitamin and nutrient intake from a healthy everyday diet with whole foods, vegetables, etc. You do not need to eat loads of fruit to help. We are learning in the modern diet that sugar is bad and this needs to be learnt!

David Hurst BDS (Lon)

Wisdom teeth - Not very wise

Wisdom teeth - Not very wise

Wisdom teeth are associated with pain, crowding the rest of your teeth and being a torture to remove. There are some truths in this but also it's important to know some facts.

Wisdom teeth are known as your 3rd molars. They typically come through when you around 18 to 21 years old. They are also the most commonly missing teeth.

If you have adequate sized teeth to fit in your jaw or mouth then your wisdom teeth may come through normally without issue. But very commonly we find that we may not have enough room in our mouths so the teeth may come through at an angle (impacted). This can lead to a sore gum as it erupts through and cause food to trap in this area, this is also difficult to clean, leading to agonising infections.

My advice to anyone that has a grumbling wisdom tooth is to first gently brush the area very thoroughly and then rinse and bathe the area in warm to hot salty water, keeping the rinse in your mouth for 1 to 2 minutes. If needed take some painkillers. Then visit your dentist.

They will need to x-Ray this area of your mouth to view the roots of the wisdom tooth and the other associated structures and teeth near by. If the decision is that this tooth is only going to be problematic in the future then it may be decided to have it removed.

It would be preferable for any complex and difficult extractions to be referred to an Oral Surgeon who will be better experienced and qualified in such dental extractions. It will also make the procedure and recovery time better.

If the procedure is predicted to be difficult or that you decide to have multiple wisdom teeth removed you may wish to have treatment either under sedation or under a general anaesthetic. This is important to discuss with your dentist.

David Hurst BDS (Lon)