Patients should closely follow their dentist’s instructions when they receive dentures. Dentures will usually require several follow-up appointments in the first few weeks and months to ensure proper fit and check for any irritation.

Most patients need time to adjust to their dentures. They may feel loose until the patient’s facial muscles and tongue learn to help secure the dentures. They may loosen when the patient coughs, sneezes, yawns or laughs. The dentures can generally be resecured by gently biting down and swallowing.

Dentures may feel bulky and awkward at first. Patients will eventually get used to the feel of these dental appliances. Patients may experience some discomfort and soreness at first, but this will improve over time. The presence of the denture in the mouth may also cause more saliva to be produced until the mouth adapts to it.

Patients may need to make some changes in their eating habits while becoming accustomed to wearing a denture. Soft foods that are cut into small pieces are typically recommended. Certain foods (e.g., tough meats, raw vegetables, sticky foods) may need to be avoided. After patients have become accustomed their dentures, they may return to their previous eating habits, or at least adopt similar eating habits.

Patients who have difficulty making certain sounds after a denture has been placed are encouraged to practice speaking. Speaking slowly and quietly, reading aloud and repeating troublesome words often helps patients adapt to speaking with dentures in their mouths. This will also help to keep dentures from clicking during speech.

Regular dental examinations are important whether or not the patient wears dentures. A dentist can recommend how often a patient should make a dental appointment. Dental examinations are also important to maintain a proper fit over time. Natural changes in the mouth and jaw occur with age. The dentist can make many of these adjustments in the dental office. However, in some cases, a new denture may be required.

There are two major types of adjustments that dentures tend to require over time. For both of these procedures, the denture teeth of the previous denture are reused.

• Relining. Typically takes around 30 to 60 minutes in the dental office. Two or three millimeters of the denture base are removed and a relining material of acrylic resin is secured in place. The relining material is still very soft when it is placed against the gum. This allows it to conform to the shape of the gum before hardening. A soft or hard relining material may be used. The soft material may be used temporarily (e.g., while irritated gums heal) and it is generally replaced with a hard reline at a later date.
  
  
• Rebasing. This is not done as frequently as relining. An impression is made of the patient’s gums. The impression and dentures are sent to a dental laboratory where the denture base is completely replaced. The patient will have to go without dentures for a short time (e.g., about a day).