Dentures replace your whole smile with a set of removable teeth. In some cases, your dentist may suggest removing your existing teeth to prevent serious complications. Other times, you may have lost your teeth over time, like many other adults. According to the National Institute for Dental and Craniofacial Research, 27.27% of seniors have no teeth. Whether you have lost your teeth naturally or had a dentist recommend pulling them, you should learn about the benefits of dentures to see how you can get your smile back.
Types of Dentures
Dentists offer several types of dentures based on your oral health needs. These include the following options:
- Conventionally fitted full dentures
- Immediate fitting full dentures
- Partial dentures
Your dentist can let you know whether you can wait for a conventional set or need a fitting for immediate dentures. In some cases, you may only need a partial to replace several teeth instead of all of them. All three types of dentures offer benefits for how you look, what you eat, and how you talk.
Dentures Restore Your Appearance
Perhaps the most well-known among the benefits of dentures is how they can restore your appearance. Your teeth do more for how you look than you may know. When you lose all your teeth, your lips will sink in, changing how other people see you. Smiling becomes more difficult because, without teeth, you may feel embarrassed to grin.
When you wear dentures, your face restores more natural contours around your mouth. The dentures support your lips to help you look more youthful.
If you love photos, you don’t have to worry about hiding your smile. Dentures look like natural teeth. When you wear them, you can return to giving open-mouthed grins again in pictures.
By giving yourself the gift of dentures, you no longer have to hide from cameras. Your family also will have the benefit of seeing you in their pictures once again.
Dentures Let You Eat Normally
Eating without dentures can be painful and limit what you choose. If you are an older adult, getting a variety of foods is critical to helping you maintain your health. Eating only soft foods makes it harder to get all the nutrients you need to stay energetic and healthy.
Dentures let you give in to your cravings for crunchy and chewy foods. Apples, chips, cereal, and meat are some foods that you can indulge in again once you get dentures. Discuss with your dentist any concerns you have about what you can eat when wearing dentures.
Dentures Improve Your Speech
How you form words depends on the interaction of your tongue with your teeth. If you don’t have teeth, your speech changes, and certain words become difficult to say. Getting dentures makes it possible to restore your ability to speak normally.
When you first get your dentures, you may find adapting to speaking with them unusual. The more that you wear your dentures, the easier speaking becomes. Over time, you will realize how much better people understand you when you talk with your dentures in place.
To get the greatest speaking benefits from your dentures, you need well-fitting fixtures. Because compliance with wearing dentures relies on how well they fit, dentists do their best to ensure that you have the most comfortable, natural-feeling prosthetics possible.
Embrace the Benefits of Dentures at Greenwood Dental Care
Discover the benefits of dentures yourself by making an appointment with us at Greenwood Dental Care. Our professionals can help to make it easier for you to smile, eat, and speak more like you did before you lost your teeth. You can also get alternatives to dentures and other services from our practice, including the following:
- Dental bridges
- Implants
- Partial dentures
- Dental crowns
- General dentistry for the rest of your family
Contact Greenwood Dental online or call us at 855.528.3961 for an appointment to recover your smile.