Millions of people rely on their traditional dentures in Plymouth to help them eat a variety of foods and enjoy a confident smile. While these prosthetics are certainly useful in many ways, they do have their drawbacks. In fact, research suggests that wearing them may negatively affect your ability to take in adequate nutrition. This blog post explores why that is the case and how dental implants may be able to address the problem.
Nutrition Before and After Dentures
A study from the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Dentistry analyzed data from 10,000 patients with the aim of understanding the impact that dentures can have on nutrition. The researchers compared patients’ nutritional markers two years before they got dentures to those same markers two years after the patients started using prosthetic teeth.
The researchers discovered a significant decline in nutritional markers after the patients got dentures. Although the majority of of the data points were still considered to be within the normal range, it is reasonable to assume that with extended denture wear, those markers could continue to go down.
Why Do Dentures Affect Nutrition?
Dentures may affect nutrition in a couple of ways:
- Chewing force. A complete denture may reduce a person’s chewing force to just 20 – 25% of what it was when they had full use of their natural teeth. Since denture wearers are unable to chew as thoroughly as they did previously, they may swallow larger chunks of food. In turn, this can impede the body’s ability to fully extract nutrients from what a person eats.
- Dietary changes. Some foods are quite challenging to eat with dentures. For example, it might be difficult to enjoy raw veggies, fruits, and certain meats. Denture wearers may adjust their eating habits so they consume mostly soft foods, which can deprive them of the nutrients that are commonly found in tougher items.
Finding a Solution
Here are a couple of things that you may be able to do to improve your nutrition:
- Adjust what you eat. For example, you might try incorporating nutrient-rich meal replacement shakes into your diet. Your doctor might also recommend that you start taking some high-quality supplements.
- Switch to implant dentures in Plymouth. Implant dentures are anchored in the jawbone via prosthetic tooth roots. They can provide a bite strength that is around 90% of what is expected with natural teeth. Patients can therefore eat virtually any food, chew it thoroughly, and get the full benefits from it.
Dentures have their advantages, but they are far from perfect; they could affect your ability to take in adequate nutrition! Fortunately, there are steps you can take to make sure that your body gets what it needs to function its best.
Meet the Practice
The oral health experts at Aveni Dental Professionals are proud to offer a wide range of treatments, including traditional dentures, implant dentures, and more. If you would like to learn how you may be able to improve your chewing strength and experience other benefits of dental implants, contact our team at 508-217-7454.