Denture Care

Just because you may have dentures does not mean that you can ignore your oral health and hygiene. It is still important to seek dental services regularly for evaluating the soft tissues and to examine the denture for proper fit, comfort, and function.

What is a denture?

A denture is a removable prosthesis that replaces all the teeth in one jaw.

There are two types of "dentures":

1. Complete dentures (also called dentures or full dentures) replace all of the teeth in the upper jaw or the lower jaw.

2. Removable partial dentures (also called partials) replace only some of the teeth in the upper jaw or lower jaw. A partial is more properly known as a removable partial denture.  It is a removable prosthesis that replaces some but not all the teeth in one jaw.

How to care for your dentures:

Caring for removable partial dentures, complete dentures, and nightguards

All removable dental restorations that are made with acrylic resin (pink or clear) require daily soaking for 20-30 minutes.

Acrylic resin absorbs fluids which in the mouth contain bacteria.  Once bacteria are absorbed into the plastic they cannot be easily removed.

First, the surface of the removable acrylic containing device must be scrubbed clean using liquid soap.

Once the surface is clean, the soaking cleaner (eg. a cup of water with Polident, Efferdent or a teaspoon of bleach) can then penetrate into the acrylic resin to kill bacteria.