Dentures
Dentures can be total and partial. Total dentures are used in cases when there are no teeth in the oral cavity. They should be taken out of the mouth of the patient after every meal and they should be cleaned.
Partial dentures are used when a bigger amount of teeth is missing in the mouth of the patient and when the loss of teeth is so severe that it can’t be restored by a bridge construction.Partial dentures are fixed to the teeth through clasps or other mechanisms. Just like total dentures, they should also be taken out of the mouth after every meal and they should be cleaned. It’s recommended that patients leave their dentures during the night in a cup of water, before they go to bed. Patients should never sleep at night with their dentures in their mouth.
Q&A
What happens if a patient does not have a denture?
The first obvious change noticed by a patient is the change of the speech. There is also a change in the chewing function which automatically leads to discomfort of the digestive system. And finally, there is a change in the facial expression of the patient, which means – the patient looks older than his/hers normal age.
Should patients sleep with their dentures?
No. Patients should not sleep with their dentures. At the beginning, patients have some strange feeling when they place the dentures in their mouth, they can’t get used to this new feeling right away. It’s a process that takes some time. In such cases, some doctors would recommend that patients sleep with the dentures in the mouth for a while. After that period, patients should put away the dentures, when they go to sleep, they should not sleep with them. Dentures should be put away, because first: they must be cleaned from any food rests and second because they should be left in a glass of water so that they can be ‘’freshened up’’. A third very reason for that is to avoid any wound of the ‘’лигавица’’ of the oral cavity. In some cases, when the patient is lying on the bed, the dentures can be separated from the gums and they can be swallowed by the patients, they can cause suffocation.