• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer

Vernon Denture Clinic

Bringing unique smiles to life

Phone: 250.542.9117 or Toll-Free: 1.877.539.1972
  • Home
  • About Us
    • Our Team
    • Our Clinic
    • Mural Project
  • Services
    • Standard Dentures
    • Precision Dentures
    • Implant-Supported Dentures
    • Partial Dentures
    • Immediate Dentures
    • Relines, Rebases and Soft Liners
    • Repairs
    • Features
    • Upgrades
  • Patients
    • Patient Safety
    • Treatment Planning & Patient Care
    • Smiles
    • Reviews
  • FAQs
  • Blog
  • Contact
    • Contact us
    • Referral – Dental Providers
    • Patient Forms

Adapting to Life with Dentures

June 15, 2020 by Vernon Denture Clinic

Learning to live with a denture takes practice, patience, and time

Whether you’re looking at getting your first denture or you’ve been wearing dentures for years, most patients will experience some difficulty when adapting to dentures. Happily, these problems can be effectively managed and in most cases overcome with patience, time, practice, and proper care and treatment options best suited to your needs.

Here are three common challenges reported by people wearing new dentures, along with tips for how to overcome each challenge.

Changes to speech

It is common for denture patients to initially have difficulty speaking when adapting to dentures. In particular, pronouncing words with “S,” “Z,” or “F” sounds can be difficult.

Rest assured that slightly slurred speech and other difficulties producing crisp, clear sounds are a normal response to the initial denture adjustment period. In time and with practice, your lips and tongue will adjust to your new denture and your ability to form sounds properly will improve.

If you find yourself lisping (a misarticulation mostly due to an error in tongue placement within the mouth), try speaking more slowly and deliberately than you would normally. This will give your mouth, lips, and tongue time and practice adjusting to your new denture.

If there are specific sounds that prove problematic for you, try working on correcting each sound in isolation. Again, slowing your speech down during practice sessions will help you more quickly master each sound.

If difficulty speaking persists, schedule an appointment with your Denturist to discuss.

Trouble with eating

Eating certain foods with a denture can be difficult at first. Foods that are fibrous (e.g., meat), hard (e.g., nuts, carrots), leafy (e.g., lettuce, spinach), or that require hard biting with your front teeth (e.g., apples, corn) are the most challenging.

Initially, it may help to increase the amount of soft foods in your diet. Yogurt, eggs, oatmeal, avocados, bananas, soups, and fish are ideal foods in terms of nutrition and consistency. As you become accustomed to your new denture, you can reintroduce more challenging foods into your diet.

Cutting your food up into smaller pieces than you would normally, and chewing on both sides of your mouth at the same time, can make chewing easier and help you adjust to eating with your new dentures.

If you continue to have difficulty chewing your food properly, schedule an appointment with your Denturist for an assessment.

Social considerations

Initially, you may feel clumsy speaking, smiling, laughing, or eating with your new denture. In time, your body will adjust, you will stop noticing your denture as much, and you will gain confidence in wearing your new denture. All of this will help you to relax in social situations.

If you find yourself avoiding social situations because of embarrassment while eating, speaking, or laughing, don’t ignore these symptoms. Loose or ill-fitting dentures; sore spots; clicking, whistling, or other noises when you talk – these are all problems that can be corrected. A visit to your Denturist can diagnose any underlying issues and help to get you socializing normally again.

Back to the Blog Archives

Share this:

  • Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window)
  • Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window)

Filed Under: Blog Tagged With: Adapting, adjusting, denture function, immediate dentures, new denture

At Vernon Denture Clinic, we understand just how unique your smile is!

Footer

2910 – 31st Avenue
Vernon, BC V1T 2G4

Tel: 250.542.9117
Toll-Free: 1.877.539.1972
Fax: 250.542.9677
Email: admin@vernondentureclinic.com

  • View vernondentures’s profile on Facebook
  • View vernondentures’s profile on Twitter
  • View vernondentureclinic’s profile on Instagram

Copyright © 2024 · Vernon Denture Clinic · All Rights Reserved.

Copyright © 2024 · Atmosphere Pro on Genesis Framework · WordPress · Log in

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Services
  • Patients
  • FAQs
  • Blog
  • Contact
 

Loading Comments...