So, what’s crawling in your mouth right now?

We’ve been told this since childhood, some of listened, while others were too busy with other things. And maybe now those kids (yeah, my hand’s up on that one) are paying the price for not listening. But now it’s become more important than ever to take note of the simple things, and learn to incorporate the new.

We know that proper hygiene is required with #Dentures. You need to make sure that there is no build-up of bacteria that can cause you more harm. If left unchecked, bacteria can multiple on your denture and in your mouth and begin to attack any remaining teeth causing cavities, toothache or worse; more extractions and the possibility of needing another denture, or a full denture.

This is especially true when you’re in the recovery phase after surgery, but the fight continues once the healing has taken place and even after you get your new denture.

It seems that now with a denture, the simple task of brushing your teeth becomes a multi-step process requiring two different brushes, tablets, potions and diligence. But it needn’t be a chore, you need to enjoy it, as strange as that sounds, but think about it. This is your health. This is the fight to keep any remaining teeth and to live a healthy, happy life. So why hate what will help you now and in the long run.

Take it as part of your day now.

This is the ritual you have to start the day, or when-ever you choose to do it. Your own personal time to focus on you, what you need and what will keep you going.

The process is simple. Even though it may make your bathroom routine a little longer, it’s worth it in the long run. You can even do a type of meditation as well. A few minutes of quiet as your denture soaks in a bacteria-killing solution. Sometimes you just need to change your perspective on any situation, this can be applied to anything in life.

Firstly, brush the denture with a good hand or liquid soap, get into the gaps of the teeth and especially the part of the denture where the gum goes into; the ‘gum trench’ as I like to call it, there’s probably a more scientific name for it, but for now I’ll stick with ‘gum-trench’.

Then, take the case you received with your denture, or any water-tight container. Fill it three-quarters of the way full.

Pop a Steradent tablet in there. It will start to dissolve immediately and the water will start to turn blue.

Place the denture in the solution. Close the lid and leave for ten minutes. Easy.

While you wait, now’s a good time to do a salt-rinse, as recommended by my Dental Prosthetist (and btw, why do they have so many S’s, T’s and a ‘th’, in their name when they’re dealing with denture-people who find pronouncing those sounds so difficult?)

Anyway, moving along, brush your remaining teeth as you’d normally do, and any other part of your morning routine while you wait the ten minutes for the dentures to be clean.

Once the time is up, take the dentures out and brush and rinse the Steradent solution from the denture. Make sure they are fully clean, it’s not recommended to eat or swallow that stuff.

So it’s not so daunting after all, is it? In fact once you get into the routine you’ll barely notice it.

Do you have a different cleaning regiment? How do you spend that time while your dentures soak? Comment and share your thoughts.