Across the United States and around the world, countless millions of people rely on their dentures to help them eat their favorite foods and enjoy a beautiful, confident smile. These prosthetics are certainly useful! However, they do not quite measure up to natural teeth. In fact, some research indicates that wearing dentures could actually have an adverse effect on your ability to take in all the nutrients your body needs. This blog post explains what you should know about dentures and nutrition. It also explains how dental implants may be able to help you stay healthy from head to toe.
Nutrition Before and After Dentures
A study from the Regenstrief Institute and Indiana University School of Dentistry looked at data from 10,000 patients. The goal of the study was to understand how dentures affect nutrition. The researchers compared a number of nutritional markers from two years before and two years after the participants started using their prosthetic teeth.
The study discovered a decline in nutritional markers after the patients had been wearing dentures for two years. While the decrease was significant, it is still worth noting that all of the data points remained in the normal range. With extended denture wear, however, it is possible that those markers could continue to deteriorate.
Why Do Dentures Affect Nutrition?
There are a couple of ways in which dentures may affect nutrition:
- Chewing force. A complete set of upper and lower dentures may provide a chewing force that is just 20 – 25% of what is normal with natural teeth. This reduced chewing power may mean that denture wearers are more likely to swallow larger chunks of food, which can interfere with the body’s ability to digest such foods and extract nutrients from them.
- Dietary changes. Some foods are a bit challenging to eat with dentures, particularly for individuals who are new to their prosthetic. A reduction in the variety of foods that a person eats could affect their nutritional markers.
Finding a Solution
You might be able to improve your nutrition by taking a few practical steps:
- Make careful nutrition choices. For example, you might start taking supplements or drinking nutrient-rich meal replacement shakes.
- Consider switching to implant dentures. Implant dentures are secured in the mouth via prosthetic tooth roots, so they can provide a much stronger chewing force than traditional dentures.
Dentures are an excellent tooth replacement option, but they are far from perfect! Be sure to make careful eating choices so your body can get all of the fuel it needs to function at its best.
Meet the Practice
The team at Aveni Dental Professionals is proud to offer both traditional dentures and implant dentures. We are always happy to answer our patients’ questions about the pros and cons of their tooth replacement options. To learn how we may be able to serve you, contact our Plymouth office at 508-217-7454.