Maintaining Your Dentures
Just like your natural teeth, dentures need regular cleaning after meals. Clean dentures over a hand basin half filled with water. This way, if the dentures are dropped during cleaning, the water will cushion their fall avoiding chipping or breakage against a porcelain basin.
There are two recommended alternatives for cleaning your dentures. Choose the one which better suits your needs:
Method 1
Brush all surfaces thoroughly using bath or liquid soap and a denture brush. After cleaning rinse the denture well under running water. Also rinse your mouth before re-inserting your denture/s. Use either water or an antiseptic mouth rinse.
To remove stains or scale build-up, soak your denture/s in Caldent once or twice a week depending on the severity of the stain or build-up. Special “denture baths” are available for this purpose.
Method 2
Some people prefer to brush their dentures with a denture cream. Again, use a denture brush. These creams clean well, but just like toothpastes, they are mildly abrasive and will produce gradual wear of the denture/s. If staining occurs that cannot be removed by the denture cream, soak the denture in Caldent as described above.
It is normal for the fit of your dentures to change over the years, due to natural shrinkage of the gum. Loose dentures can be corrected by having your dentist re-line them form time to time. (Every 3-5 years is normal.) It is likely they will need replacement every 7-10 years.)
