Teeth need to be protected from a young age. However, this recommendation often does not help even those people who carefully observe oral hygiene, and as a result they often permanently lose their teeth.
Thanks to the installation of dentures, doctors can make life much easier for people in old age, as well as for patients who have lost teeth as a result of injury or disease. However, not everything is as simple as it seems. During the adaptation period, patients face a lot of difficulties. At the same time, many do not withstand and refuse to wear the structure.
Some time after the installation of dentures, the patient still feels discomfort. After all, addiction is always a gradual process. The first time after installation, many patients complain of a violation of diction, a distortion of taste, difficulty in chewing food, as well as psychological discomfort.
In addition, some patients complain of vomiting and increased production of saliva. It will take a lot of time and patience to overcome these difficulties. So how long does it take to get used to removable teeth in most patients?
Terms of adaptation
According to statistics, getting used to fixed dentures is faster than to removable ones. On average, it takes about 2-3 days. The time for getting used to removable dentures can be significantly increased if the patient has previously completely lost teeth in the upper and lower jaws.
In general, the time for getting used to removable teeth is individual for each patient, however, according to doctors, they can be significantly reduced if the dentures are not removed at night for a month.
In general, the timing of getting used to dentures depends on the following factors:
- Dimensions of the false jaw;
- Feature of chewing pressure transmission;
- The method by which the prosthesis was attached and the degree of fixation of the structure;
- The individual reaction of the body to the presence of a foreign body in it.
In medical practice, it has long been proven that patients get used to single dental crowns better than to prostheses that were installed on pins. Small difficulties are also caused by getting used to bridges. This is due to the redistribution of chewing function in the oral cavity.
Patients usually get used to prostheses that do not have fasteners in the form of various brackets and hooks.
Problems faced by patients during the adaptation period
In almost all cases, the installation of dentures is accompanied by discomfort. The dentist should always warn about this.
Most often, when installing dentures, patients face the following problems:
- Pain that appears during chewing due to pressure on the gums or adjacent healthy teeth;
- Discomfort associated with the sensation of a foreign body in the oral cavity;
- Incorrect closure of the jaws of dentures. This phenomenon can occur both due to violations in the manufacture of the structure, and due to habit;
- Increased salivation;
- The occurrence of various stomatitis, reddening irritations as a result of constant gum dramatization;
- Violation of diction. This is usually due to the fact that the patient cannot control the tongue normally. It usually doesn't take long to fix this problem.
Features of nutrition with dentures
During adaptation after the installation of dentures, patients are encouraged to consume liquid food, as well as food that is easy to chew.
In order to prevent trauma to the gums with prostheses, dentists recommend excluding nuts, crackers, apples, caramel, and viscous foods from the diet in the first weeks after installation.
Chew food slowly and carefully to avoid injury to the tongue and oral mucosa.
However, after 1.5-2 months, solid food should be gradually included in the diet.
Ways to get used to removable dentures
In order to make life easier for patients during the period of adaptation to removable structures, dentists have developed a number of activities that the patient will have to perform.
Some patients in the first time after the establishment of the teeth complain to doctors about the occurrence of various abrasions and scratches in the oral cavity. Most often, the reason for this phenomenon lies in the incorrect installation of the structure. In order to prevent this, patients after the installation of the prosthesis are advised to carefully examine the oral cavity in the mirror.
If the patient complains of vomiting, dentists recommend doing the following:
- Rinse your mouth with a solution of water and sea salt;
- Suck on menthol candies.
- Take the deepest possible breaths through the nasal cavity, and not through the mouth;
If the patient has found a violation of diction, then he is recommended:
- Quietly and slowly read texts aloud. In this case, you need to try to pronounce the words as clearly as possible. After 2-3 weeks after that, it will be possible to switch to the same reading only louder;
- During reading and conversation, you need to pay special attention to the pronunciation of consonant sounds;
- You need to read every day 3-4 times for 10-15 minutes.
In order to improve diction as soon as possible, it is also recommended to use tongue twisters with a large number of solid sounds.
If these simple rules are observed, the first improvements in diction can be noticed already after 3-4 weeks.
According to statistics, taste disorders also disappear after a month.
In addition to all this, to speed up getting used to dentures, it is also recommended:
- Thoroughly clean the structure 2 times a day - in the morning and in the evening;
- After each meal, rinse the mouth with herbal decoctions with anti-inflammatory properties (for example, chamomile, mint, sage) and massage the gums. Thus, the patient will be able to remove inflammation and swelling from the gums, eliminate part of the discomfort during addiction;
- Use fixatives. They will be able to prevent chafing of the gums and speed up the adaptation process. This rule is especially true for patients with a special structure of the jaw or for whom the prosthesis is unstable in the mouth.
Subject to these rules, adaptation to prostheses will not bring significant discomfort and will pass as soon as possible.
Based on all this, we can conclude that getting used to dentures is getting used to a new foreign body in the body.
In dentistry, the process of adaptation to prostheses is considered complete only when the patient psychologically cannot do without the structure and considers himself inferior without it. When the patient is physically uncomfortable in the absence of a prosthesis, with the disappearance of irritation and swelling of the gums.
The installation of dentures and the period of getting used to them are closely interconnected. Therefore, prosthetics cannot be called successful if the patient could not get used to the design.
