Home Care Instructions

Whether you are a patient of Vivid Prosthodontics or not, I hope you find these instructions for your dental work helpful. If you have any questions, please feel free to call or email our office.

Dentures/Partial Dentures

At times, these can be overwhelming, but with practice and patience, you will master your new set.

Eating:

Eating will be difficult at first and take a lot of practice.
I suggest chewing on both sides at the same time to help prevent movement
Cut your food into smaller bites and start with soft textures (soup, cottage cheese, yogurt, eggs, pasta, etc.) and work your way to harder foods.
At first, you may want to use a small amount of denture adhesive (you don’t need much!)
You may bite your cheeks and tongue as you get used to it, this is normal! If it happens, swish some salt water 2x a day to help with healing.

Talking:

With talking, your speech may sound different for a week to up to a few months. The more you practice, the easier it will be. Read a book outload, talk back to the TV, chat with friends/family. We have changed the way your mouth is shaped so it will take some time for your muscles to make a connection with your brain, but it will happen!

Cleaning:

You need to take your denture out while you sleep (or at least 6-8 hours). This will help prevent a fungal infection and keep your gums healthy so that your denture stays fitting well.

Snap in Implant Dentures:

If you have implants with your dentures, you also need to make sure to take care of your implants. You’ll need to your implants 2x a day and keep them clean. You’ll want to see us or your general dentist at least 2x a year (unless you have been told otherwise) to make sure they remain healthy and don’t lose bone. Unfortunately, just like teeth, implants can also fail (especially if you smoke, have had periodontal disease, or diabetes). The snaps on your dentures will need to be replaced every 6 months to a year depending on how much retention you like, how hard you are on your dentures, or if you grind.

Adjustments:

Your denture will move while you use it, so sore spots will happen! Make sure to come back and get adjustments and let us know of other issues you are having! We offer free adjustments for the first 6 months, utilize them! We want to make sure your denture is comfortable for you to wear.

Full Smile Makeovers

Getting used to it:

You may experience some cheek and tongue biting in the first few weeks of getting used to your new teeth. Also, you may have some difficulty speaking, but you will quickly adapt.
Please report any problems to Dr. Burson. If you bite feels off, let us know as soon as you can so that we can aid in getting you used to your new bite. Sometimes, it takes a few adjustments for it to feel perfect!

Cleaning:

You’ll clean your new teeth just like natural teeth, but it will be important to use a high fluoride toothpaste (Prevident) that we prescribe and floss very regularly (3-5x a week minimum).
When we place crowns, your teeth can still get cavities and when they happen, they happen at a faster rate than on natural teeth. High fluoride and oral hygiene are very important to save you time, money and save your teeth!. If you have implants, a Waterpik is a great tool to clean around hard to reach areas.
It’s recommended that you see a dental professional at least every 6 months. For some patients, it is best to see you every 3 months depending on your situation. We will work with you and your family dentist on the best schedule for you.

Mouthguard:

With all of our Full Smile Makeovers, we provide a free mouth guard. This will be very important to protect all of the work you went through and to prevent repairs and replacements of crowns, veneers, etc. This will need to be replaced when heavy wear is noted. It also helps prevent teeth from moving to keep your teeth aligned!

Hybrids/Implant Dentures

Getting used to it:

You may experience some cheek and tongue biting in the first few weeks of getting used to your new teeth. Also, you may have some difficulty speaking, but you will quickly adapt. Your implant dentures will be very similar to your trial set (if applicable), so adaptation will happen more quickly.
Please report any problems to Dr. Burson. If you bite feels off, let us know as soon as you can so that we can aide in getting used to your new bite. Sometimes, it takes a few adjustments for it to feel perfect!

Mouthguard:

With all of our Fixed Complete Dentures/Hybrids, we provide a free mouth guard. We want you to have minimal maintenance on your new teeth. This will be very important to protect all of the work you went through and to prevent repairs and replacements. This will need to be replaced when heavy wear is noted.

Maintenance:

You still need to clean around your implants! We recommend Super Floss, Floss threaders and a waterpik. Your implants can get bone loss around them if you let bacteria build up.
It is also helpful to brush the prosthesis to get off surface stains. Unless necessary, we won’t remove the prosthesis, but if we do, we will need to replace the screws that hold it in place.
The better you clean, the less maintenance costs you have!

For more information here is a peer-reviewed article we follow for our home care recommendations:

Bidra, AS, et. Al. Clinical practice guidelines for recall and maintenance of patients with tooth-borne and implant-borne dental restorations. JADA. 2016.

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