Help! My dentures will not stay in my mouth and I can’t eat with them!

You are not alone. Dentures are not a natural replacement for teeth. They are a replacement for No teeth. There is nothing wonderful about having dentures. The exceptions may be that your teeth were hurting, breaking or falling out and need to be removed thus as great reason to reduce the infections in your mouth but – plastic teeth on a plastic base will not feel close to your natural teeth.

Dentures rely on height of the bone in order to stay inside of your mouth. The upper denture has a suction seal beaded in the back part of the denture. This coupled with your mouth’s moisture provide somewhat of a seal. If your mouth is dry, this could lead to a problem. Bone resorbs (shrinks) as pressure is placed on the gums. The more shrinkage of the bone, the less retention (staying power) it will have.

Well, the lower denture sounds like a better idea, right? Gravity will keep the dentures in place. Not at all. So sorry to break this to you. The lower jaw is the one that moves and it has to contend with the tongue moving around. There is no seal on the back part of the teeth so there is no suction. The amount of contact area is greater on the top gums than on the bottom. The only way a lower denture will stay in place if you have no bone shrinkage and the shape of the ridge is fairly U-shaped.

Denture adhesives may help the denture to stay in place.

The bite relationships on dentures may have a lot to do with how and why you cannot eat with them. They are like snow shoes. If you bite down on one side, it lifts up. If you bite down in the front, the top teeth lose their suction. So- how do you eat?

You will need to start slowly by placing a saltine on both sides of your teeth and simultaneous try to chew on both sides. My instructor in dental school, Dr. Tsao said in his Chinese accent “Must chew like dog- up and down, not like cow – side to side”. Depending upon the fit of the dentures there will be movement of them.

Dental implants may be a way to secure the teeth. Dental implants are titanium cylinders that can give denture patients their confidence back. The denture teeth are secured to a pink base and inside of the base is a gasket like O-ring that may secure the teeth in place without adhesives.

People think dentures are a final solution – that it would just be easier without teeth. One thing for sure, everyone has one love – everyone loves to eat. When your choices are limited of what you can eat and where (because food becomes trapped under the denture), it can be a source of depression.