Have Flexible Dentures? Know How To Prevent Cracking
Posted on: 15 May 2018
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Do you currently use flexible dentures? This variation of traditional dentures can be a great way to fix your missing teeth. However, the dentures can become damaged over time if you do not care for them properly. While they are quite durable, flexible dentures are still susceptible to cracking or fracturing. This is what you need to know about caring for flexible dentures to help them last a long time.
Avoid Hot Beverages and Foods
One way that a fracture can happen to flexible dentures is by consuming extremely hot beverages and foods. This is due to how heat is known to cause expansion with some materials, such as flexible dentures. What happens is that the material changes its form in both size and shape and then does not go back to the exact form that it had before when it cools.
Expose the dentures to enough hot food, and the dentures will eventually start to feel like they do not fit properly. It makes the dentures very uncomfortable for wearing and can hurt your mouth when you use them. To prevent this from happening, you can let hot foods cool down when you consume them or remove your flexible dentures for those hot beverages.
Use Caution When Cleaning
Your dentures are essentially a dental prosthetic that looks like natural teeth. However, you may mistakenly try to treat the dentures as if they were made with natural teeth. The problem is that the dentures can crack if you do not know how to properly care for them.
For instance, some people use toothbrushes with hard bristles because they like how they get rid of plaque on their teeth. While the toothbrush works well for teeth, it doesn't work so well on dentures. Hard bristles are known to ruin the finish on dentures or leave behind crack on the surface that can grow over the years. Always use a soft brush to prevent this from happening.
How To Fix Broken Dentures
If your dentures are damaged, be sure to take them right away to your dentist. It is possible that they can fix the dentures instead of needing to get a whole new one made. This can be done by relining the denture plate with new material, leaving the teeth as is. Your dentist can also replace individual teeth on the dentures that have cracked or become damaged prematurely.
Speak to a dentist at offices like All Valley Dental if you have any concerns about your current dentures.