How to Eat with Dentures

Though dentures are beneficial for patients missing all or most of their teeth, adjusting to your dentures while eating may take some practice and patience. We’re sharing five tips for how to eat with dentures to make your adjustment easier!

Start with Liquids or Soft Foods

Once you put on your dentures, you may notice excessive saliva, mild soreness, and some difficulty speaking. These temporary discomforts are normal. Drinking liquids or eating soft foods like mashed potatoes, applesauce, smoothies, yogurt, and eggs can make the transition easier. We also recommend you avoid very hot temperatures as dentures can make it trickier to tell how hot a beverage or food item is.

Take Small Bites

After soft foods have been a success, the transition to hard foods may pose a new challenge. It’s best to cut food into small pieces to give you better control of chewing.

Chew with Both Sides of Your Mouth

You may feel like one area of your denture is more stable than another. However, using both sides of your mouth when you chew can prevent your denture from slipping out of place. This can also speed up the adjustment of eating with dentures.

Limit Using the Front Teeth

Using your front teeth to bite into foods can cause the front part of your dentures to take on all the pressure. This can dislodge other areas of the dentures and cause soreness to that section of your gums. Using a strong adhesive is a great way to stabilize your dentures.

Be Patient

Adjusting to dentures can take time. Stay patient, confident, and hopeful! You will eventually be back to enjoying a balanced diet with ease.

Comfortable Dentures in Denver, CO

Whether you’re wearing full or partial dentures, it’s important to be aware that eating with dentures will feel different than eating with all natural teeth. Dentures also require special maintenance and routine visits to the dentist. Please contact our team for more tips on living with dentures and to schedule your next routine cleaning and checkup!

Denture images from Authority Dental under CC 2.0

Categorized in: Restorative Dentistry