How to Eat While Wearing Your Dentures in Jacksonville

Adjusting to a new pair of dentures in Jacksonville can be somewhat difficult at first, but there are ways to make it easier and more effective. Getting used to the way your dentures fit is typically the most difficult step and can affect the way food tastes for a short period of time. However, once you’re no longer distracted by the fit, you can enjoy many of the foods you loved when you had natural teeth.

To make your future meals easier, consider the following.

Eat More Carefully at First

Start by sticking to a diet of soft foods that don’t require too much chewing power. Eggs, fish, cooked vegetables, chopped meats, puddings, smoothies, mashed potatoes, and yogurt are all ideal foods when adjusting to dentures. You can also benefit from cutting your food into small pieces to make chewing easier.

It’s also worth it to chew more slowly and cut foods into thin strips. For example, thin strips of bell pepper are much easier to chew than chunks, so cutting foods in this way can prove effective during the early stages of adjustment.

Take Attentive Bites

Avoid taking bites of food with the front of your teeth while wearing dentures. Dentures can easily become unstable if they haven’t become fitted to your mouth yet. It can also make your gumline sore, causing eating to be more difficult later.

Instead, try to chew half of your food in the back-left side of your mouth and the other half on the back-right side. This will produce an even pressure throughout the mouth. If you must bite down, do so with your canines which are more effective at tearing food into small pieces.

Start Introducing Firmer Foods

Once you gotten confident in eating mild to moderately soft foods, you can start to introduce tougher foods. These includes steak, apples, and celery, of course they should all be properly cut into small enough pieces for dentures to handle them. Make sure you don’t chew gum, hot foods that can easily burn, or foods with sharp parts such as bones or shell.

Prepare Foods Appropriately

Eventually, you’ll be able to continue the diet you had before while wearing dentures. Of course, you’ll still need to make sure they are prepared correctly to prevent your dentures from shifting. Hard or sticky foods may prove to be the most difficult to accommodate, such as nuts or hard candies. Additionally, hard or sticky foods can damage dentures and make them difficult to clean later, so choose them wisely.

Once you’ve adjusted to your new dentures, your quality of life should see a dramatic improvement. Keeping a balanced diet is essential to your oral health as well as your overall health, so it’s worth taking the time to make the adjustments. To make sure your dentures are fitting properly, schedule an appointment with your dentist in Jacksonville today!

About the Author

Dr. Ryan Johnson earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery degree from the University of Colorado School of Dental Medicine. He hopes to help patients rebuild their smile from the ground and make eating their favorite foods a reality once again. To learn more about his many types of dentures in Jacksonville, contact him through his website.