Since dental labs tailor them, dentures typically fit a patient’s mouth snugly and smoothly. You shouldn’t expect these prosthetics to wobble or slip around, at least not at first. That said, dentures can start feeling “off” or become ill-fitting after enough time passes. You’d then need to see a dentist to stop (or prevent) specific oral health issues. If you want to learn more, just keep reading to learn about common complications of ill-fitting dentures.
What Issues Do Ill-Fitting Dentures Cause?
Unless you have them fixed, ill-fitting dentures can harm your smile in various ways. Some of the more notable issues they cause include:
Sore & Swollen Gums
Dentures that don’t fit your mouth’s contours will rub against your gums. Often enough, this rubbing leads to friction and pressure that makes gum tissue swollen and irritated. The gums can then suffer injuries and bleeding due to the swelling.
Oral Blisters
Aside from irritated gums, ill-fitting dentures can also result in blisters. These fluid-filled spaces can occur when your restorations rub against certain mouth areas. Once fully formed, they often cause extreme discomfort and heighten the risk of oral damage and infection.
Trouble Eating & Speaking
As you’d imagine, eating and speaking well is hard when dentures become ill-fitting. You can’t rely on your prosthetics to enunciate words or chew food when they aren’t stable. To that extent, continuing to use them will make speech impediments and poor nutrition more likely.
Social Embarrassment
Ill-fitting dentures are often a source of social embarrassment for their users. After all, you could easily worry about how they look, whether they’ll work the right way, or that they’ll slip out of place. Such fears drain you of confidence in your replacement smile, leading to shame and mental anguish.
How Your Dentist Can Fix Dentures
You should avoid the effects above by having a dentist fix your dentures. Thanks to their skill and experience, they can assess your prosthetic teeth and devise a proper treatment.
Most modern dentists have varied ways to fix dentures with an ill fit. One go-to method is denture re-lining, which adds material to your restoration to make it fit better. Another approach is for the dentist to replace your old denture with a new one, perhaps an implant-based model. This second way is most suitable when the current prosthetics have a large break or fracture.
You shouldn’t just live with the complications of ill-fitting dentures. For your smile’s sake, see your dentist and have them repair your restorations.
About the Practice
Papageorgiou Dental Associates is based in Natick, MA. Led by Drs. Papageorgiou and Buckley, our practice takes a patient-first approach to dentistry. That means we tailor our comprehensive services to your smile’s needs, and we always act with gentleness and warmth. Your whole family can trust us to make your grins thrive for a lifetime! For more details or to book a visit, please contact us on our website or by phone at (508)-545-1126.