Are you replacing your old dentures with state-of-the-art dental implants? It’s an exciting upgrade for your smile, but you need to keep in mind it will be a change from what you have gotten used to with dentures. Especially if you’ve had dentures for a while, the transition to dental implants could be a little jarring at first. How? Here are three things you’ll have to adjust to when your dentures are attached to implants.
Unremovable Teeth
Unless you weren’t in dentures very long, you probably have experienced the sensation of your teeth coming loose or shifting while you try to chew food or talk. Consequently, denture wearers learn how to adapt their speech and eating habits to accommodate teeth that are removable.
When your restoration is secured to dental implants, you don’t have to worry about them coming loose. In fact, you may have to readapt how you talk and eat again, but you’ll soon get the hang of it!
A Stable, Strong Bite
Over time, dentures tend to fit more loosely than when you first get them, and you may have become accustomed to having to eat with a weaker bite. When your implants are fully restored, however, you will regain about 70 percent of your original biting power!
With a more powerful bite, you can eat harder or chewier foods, such as raw vegetables, fruit, whole grains, and certain kinds of meat. Basically, you can eat anything you want! You may need to steadily build back up to your previous food choices because your mouth may need time to adjust to a fuller, more balanced diet again.
Different Daily Maintenance
Even when you had normal dentures, you likely performed daily maintenance to keep them in good condition, but dental implants require slightly different care. Instead of taking your dentures out, brushing them, and soaking them overnight, they will now stay in your mouth. However, you still need to make sure plaque and bacteria don’t build up. As a result, you should brush and floss them just as you would natural teeth.
If you haven’t done these simple habits every day for a while, it may take some time and practice to develop these habits again, but the effort to do them daily will go a long way to preserve your implants and your new smile.
Changes can come with adjustments, but the transition from traditional dentures to implants is well worthwhile. Because they typically last for decades, you can settle in with your new smile. Before you know it, you’ll be talking, eating, and showing off your grin with more confidence with your new implants!
About the Practice
With Boyles General Dentistry & Implant Center, you don’t have to worry about going to multiple practices to receive your entire implant treatment. We handle every step in-house, which means you can continue the process from start to finish with the same team you know and trust. Dr. Franklin Boyles and Dr. Stephen Boyles are masters with the Academy of General Dentistry, which is a distinction that only few dentists achieve in their careers. To learn more about transitioning to dental implants, give the office a call at or visit the Contact Us page here and request an appointment.