Adjusting to life with dentures can take time, especially when it comes to eating. While dentures are designed to help you enjoy a more complex and confident smile, certain foods can cause damage, discomfort, or frustration. However, knowing what to avoid can help you protect your dentures, prevent sore spots, and maintain your oral health long-term. Here are some foods that you should consider avoiding (if possible) as you navigate life with dentures, along with some tips for ensuring that your dietary habits are the least of your new smile’s concerns!
Foods You Shouldn’t Eat with Dentures
Even though dentures replace your teeth, there are still some foods out there that may cause you problems if you try to eat them. For example, sticky foods like caramel, taffy, peanut butter, and chewing gum can cling to your dentures and even dislodge them while you chew. These foods are also tough to clean off and may weaken the denture’s fit or stability over time.
Hard candies, popcorn kernels, nuts, and other hard items like raw vegetables can also put too much pressure on your dentures, causing potential cracks or breakage. They can also irritate your gums or cause your dentures to shift unexpectedly.
Tough meats like steak, jerky, or even pork chops can also be difficult to break down with dentures, leading to jaw discomfort or uneven pressure. Finally, foods with small seeds or grains, like sesame seed buns or poppyseed muffins, can also lead to problems, as the small particles may become trapped underneath your restoration.
Managing Your Diet with Dentures
It’s not just about avoiding certain foods; it’s also about helping your dentures out when possible and setting them up for a successful future. Here are some tips to help you manage your diet with dentures:
- It never hurts to adjust your diet to include softer, easy-to-eat foods like boiled pasta and rice, scrambled eggs, mashed potatoes, pureed fruits, boiled vegetables, and other similar items; these are all easy on dentures while being at the foundation of a healthy diet.
- Avoid eating excessive amounts of sugary foods; although your dentures are resistant to decay, an unhealthy diet can still trigger other oral health issues that might impact your dentures one day.
- When eating your proteins, try to cut your meats up into smaller, bite-sized pieces that are easier to chew, or aim to eat ground or slow-cooked meats that make eating more comfortable.
- Clean your dentures after each meal, regardless of what you’ve eaten, to keep them clean, functional, and free of foul odors/tastes.
If you’re a candidate for implant dentures, which are dentures that are supported by dental implants placed directly into the jawbone, know that this solution offers more stability and functionality for your dentures, meaning that many previously hard-to-eat foods shouldn’t give you quite as much trouble.
In any case, knowing how to properly navigate your diet once you start wearing dentures will ensure that your restoration can serve you well and help you eat a varied, satisfying diet!
About the Practice
Our team here at Miles of Smiles has proudly served the dental needs of patients and families in Londonderry and the surrounding areas for several years. We offer a wide range of services, including custom-made restorations like traditional and implant-retained, to help patients with all degrees of tooth loss. If you have any questions about the blog, or if you’d like to set up an appointment to see if you may benefit from dentures, you can reach out online or call us today for more information or assistance. Telephone: (603) 437-8204.