It’s often tempting to neglect your dentures after a long and tiring day. When you’ve dealt with countless tasks and obligations, setting them on your nightstand before bed can seem like enough. However, the fact remains that you should soak your dentures overnight. This practice has many benefits for your mouth and new teeth, so skipping it isn’t wise. As for the proof, look at these four reasons you should soak your dentures while asleep.
Soaks Kill Harmful Germs
Perhaps most crucially, overnight soaks kill harmful germs on your dentures. That means they clean your prosthetics before you re-insert them each morning.
Don’t forget: dentures pick up bacteria like real teeth. Given enough time, those microbes could cause plaque to grow in your mouth and cause gum disease. The good news is that soaking dentures in a cleaning solution overnight removes the awful bacteria. After all, a good soak will reach places your toothbrush might’ve missed.
Soaks Reduce the Risk of Thrush
Of course, soaks don’t just prevent regular oral issues like tooth decay or gum disease. They also reduce your risk of thrush.
Failing to clean your devices can cause denture stomatitis – thrush. This condition stems from an excess of yeast in your mouth, which often occurs among wearers of dentures. Such yeast buildup can redden, swell, and irritate your teeth and gums. Thankfully, putting your dentures in a solution overnight destroys yeast, germs, and fungi, making thrush unlikely.
Soaks Give Your Gums a Break
When you soak your dentures overnight, you give your gums a much-needed break. That alone ensures your restorations will be helpful in the long term.
You see, gum tissue has to work hard to hold up dentures. Keeping the prosthetics secure all day can tire and irritate them after a while. With that said, taking your dentures out each night lets your gums heal and recover for the day ahead. This period of time reduces gum swelling, sore spots, wounds, and more.
Soaks Help Dentures Last
Overnight soaks are as good for your dentures as for your mouth. By sticking with them, your prosthetic teeth will last longer than they would otherwise.
Soaking your dentures overnight maintains their shape. When they get too much dry air (or receive poor storage), they can slowly distort and eventually become ill-fitting. That would force you to get them relined or switch to new dentures altogether. Given these facts, try to soak them each night so they preserve their shape.
When you soak your dentures overnight, you and your prosthetics will benefit. Keep that in mind as you look after them in the future!
About the Practice
Gale Ranch Family Dental is based in San Ramon, CA. Founded by Drs. Roger and Thomas Wong, our practice has been helping patients smile for well over 35 years. You can count on us for virtually any oral need, as we offer preventive, cosmetic, and restorative treatments. Whether the goal is a dental checkup, dentures, or something in between, we’ll ensure your whole mouth thrives! For more details or to book a visit, please contact us on our website or by phone at (925)-648-8881.