How Eating With Dentures Is Better Than Eating With Some or No Teeth
Losing teeth doesn't just affect the way you look. It also has an impact on how — and what — you eat. While you can still eat with some or even no teeth, doing so will harm your health in a number of ways.
If you are putting off the idea of getting dentures because you don't think you need them or you dislike the idea of wearing dentures, you might be surprised to learn that eating with them has a number of health benefits.
Dentures Protect Your Gums
Eating without dentures and with few to no teeth will damage your gum tissue. This is especially true if you try to eat hard or crunchy foods like raw vegetables or apples. Even foods like steak are coarse enough to abrade your gum tissue. As a result, eating with few to no teeth will damage your gum tissue and could lead to stomatitis, which is when your gum tissue becomes inflamed.
Eating with dentures, on the other hand, keeps your gums protected no matter what you eat. Though it takes practice at first, once you get used to your new dentures, you'll be able to eat tough foods that would otherwise hurt your gums.
Dentures Protect Your Jawbone
Another side effect of chewing foods with your gums is bone resorption. When you lose teeth, it is normal for the bone in the area to shrink. This is simply your body putting the bone to good use somewhere else, since you no longer need it to hold the missing teeth in place. Unfortunately, chewing food with your gums speeds up this resorption process.
This rapid bone loss will change your face shape and put you at greater risk of suffering jawbone injuries in future. However, if you eat with a denture, though the resorption process will still occur, it will be much slower. This is because dentures protect your gums from the irritation that would speed up the bone resorption.
Dentures Mean No More Painful Abscesses
If you currently have several broken teeth, you'll be no stranger to dental abscesses. It is possible to eat with broken teeth. However, doing so can be painful. You will also find that you suffer from dental abscesses quite often. This is because the bacteria that hide in the broken parts of your teeth feast on the food you eat and multiply in the process, causing your teeth to become infected.
However, if you remove those broken teeth and eat with dentures instead, dental abscesses will be a thing of the past. And, if you are worried about how your dentures might look, make sure you ask your dentist for some before and after pictures of previous denture patients. This will give you a good idea of the dentist's skill.
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