How Will I Look With Dentures?

Your dentist may have suggested that you consider getting dentures. In many circumstances, this will be the most logical solution to treating tooth loss. If you have lost one or several teeth resulting from an injury, tooth decay, or gum disease, dentures are the most common way to remedy the situation. But a common question that is asked is, “How will I look with dentures?”

You want dentures that look real and naturally don’t want your dentures to stand out and negatively affect your look. In this article, we will look closer at what dentures will do to your appearance.

Do Dentures Look Real?

The short answer is, yes. Dentures, also known as false teeth, are the artificial appliance that fits inside of your mouth to replace missing teeth. The material used to create the dentures is often a resin with a solid frame infrastructure. Depending on how many teeth are being replaced by dentures, you may either wear a partial or full denture.

Regardless, dentures are constructed in colors and designs that mimic your gums and teeth. False teeth are often carefully colored to match the shade and color of your remaining natural teeth. They can be so realistic looking that it will be difficult for anyone to determine if you have false teeth at all.

How To Maintain That Convincing Look

Just as you will have done with regular visits to your dentist’s office to keep your natural teeth looking their best, you must take care of dentures. There are denture-specific cleaning products in the marketplace to ensure that your false teeth will also look their best and never appear to be anything other than that.

From soft-bristled toothbrushes and non-abrasive pastes and gels to soaking solutions, there are ample ways to keep bacteria from forming and causing issues with your dentures. Your dentist can suggest the best products to use and cleaning them at least twice a day and soaking them overnight is the norm.

For more information about caring for your dentures, click here.

How Dentures Can Change Your Look

Even though you will be receiving dentures that look real, there are several ways that dentures can change the way that you look. Overall, however, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.

Here is a look at some of the positives and negatives of how you will look with dentures.

Positive Changes To Your Appearance

Great Smile

Probably the first thing denture wearers notice is that when their false teeth fit correctly and are a good color match to their natural teeth and gums, their smile looks great. Because you will be fitted with dentures that look real, it can have a huge impact to your general appearance, especially if you were missing teeth or your old teeth were discolored, crooked, broken, uneven or decayed. Even a partial denture that replaces a couple of teeth will make your smile look much better simply because it will contain a full row of good-looking teeth.

Eating Better

Although there are still some foods you should avoid or reduce once you start eating with dentures, your dining options still broaden. For individuals who had lost most of their teeth, wearing dentures allows them to eat solid foods again. Dentures can provide the means to maintain a healthy diet.

Speak Clearer

The tongue, lips, and mouth all have important roles to play in speech. With dentures, it may take some getting used to forming some sounds, but the upside is that if you had difficulty speaking without a lisp or whistling sound due to missing teeth, all of that will be in your past now that you wear dentures.

Increase Your Confidence

One of the advantages of wearing dentures that has to do with your appearance is how your appearance makes you feel. A bright, stunning smile, builds your self-esteem which gives you the confidence to do things. You may even try new things. Dentures can do that for you.

Negative Affects To Your Appearance

Crooked Jaw

Dentures that have been fitted properly to your mouth will assist in keeping the alignment of your jaw correct. When dentures do not fit right, which can happen over time, they can make your jaw tilt slightly to one side. This results in what looks like a crooked jaw and may cause problems eating and speaking.

Sunken Lips

Sometimes dentures take up enough space in your mouth that tissue that used to hang off of your face naturally will form folds around your mouth. This will make your cheeks roll inward and result in the appearance of a hollow and sunken space around your mouth. Closing your lips properly may be a problem.

Witch’s Chin

The muscles, fat, and bone located in your chin area will determine the shape of your chin. With dentures, your jawbone may lose volume and this can extend into your chin. It may alter how the muscles and fat in that region respond to stimuli. When the support is lost, sagging can occur making the chin look elongated.

Sagging Face

Dentures may result in a sagging face. This is normally characterized by jowls that hang, a turkey neck, or deep wrinkles and folds in the face. These can occur when the dentures being worn do not completely replace the volume of space lost inside of the mouth from missing teeth and bone resorption.

Puffy Lips/Cheeks

When dentures are too big, they can sit too far ahead on the gumline. When this happens, the denture plate pushes against the soft tissue in the mouth creating the look of puffy lips or puffy cheeks. Dentures that are too short sometimes cause this as well when lips and cheeks end up folding outward.

In Conclusion

If you are contemplating getting dentures, then it’s common to ask, “How will I look with dentures?” Well, that depends. Ideally, your dentures should fit properly to give you all the best advantages of wearing them. It also means that if you take good care of your false teeth, they will keep doing good things for you for a long time.

These days, with advances in dental appliances and the dental industry as a whole, it means that you can get dentures that look, making it almost impossible for others to tell you have false teeth. Not having to worry if your dentures look real or not can give you so much confidence.

Conversely, if your dentures no longer fit right, you do risk developing some of the negatives mentioned above. This is why it is important to continue to visit your dentist regularly to catch any problems with or caused by your dentures before they become large issues.