How to clean your denture?

It’s very important to have good daily cleaning routing to clean your denture. This helps with keeping your dentures fresh and hygienic but also helps with your oral health as well as your general health and wellbeing. 

We recommend to remove your dentures after every meal. Give them a quick rinse under running water, rinse your mouth as well and put them back in. This helps to get rid of any debris that may have got caught under the plate. I know that sometimes, it’s not easy. If you are eating out in a restaurant or in a friend’s house. But that is OK, the main cleaning should be done at night, every night. 

These are the steps to follow for a healthy denture cleaning routine:

Remove the dentures. Give them a rinse. You can use a denture brush if you like or a tooth brush. The denture brush has bristles on either side as oppose to a normal tooth brush. The bristles that are closer together are for cleaning the inside of the denture, the fitting surface, the other side of the brush is for cleaning the rest of the denture. 

You may also use an electric tooth brush if you find it easier, some people have lost dexterity in their hands and may get a better result this way. Electric tooth brushes tend to have a bigger, wider handle which is also easier to grab. Be gentle with the brushing.

Use lube warm water. You can use any non-abrasive soap or a denture paste. We don’t recommend tooth paste as it can scratch the plate which causes bacteria build up. Bacteria and germs like to hide on those scratches and they build up over time.

Tips to Clean Your Denture

Use a large plastic bowl when cleaning your dentures, as they can become slippery with the soap, dentures are very strong but they can break. The acrylic is brittle so if they hit the porcelain sink, they can break or crack so using a large plastic bowl will prevent the teeth from hitting the sink if they fell.

Once you finish with the brushing rinse them up under clean running water and place them in a container with plain water overnight. You can use some disinfectant tablets. We recommend Nitradine once a week. Nitradine does a fantastic job disinfecting the dentures after the cleaning.

You must also brush your own natural teeth for two minutes and if you don’t have any you still need to clean your gums, tongue and palate very gently with a soft tooth brush, it’s a good idea to rinse with a mouth rinse like Listerine if you find the flavour too strong you can mix it with some water, rinse thoroughly for a few seconds and spit it out. Don’t rinse a second time with plain water as it will remove the Listerine effect left in your gums. Some people choose to put some mouth wash also in the water with the dentures. 

One way to clean your dentures soaking in the container overnight. In the morning give them a quick rinse under the tap and they are good to go.

Can I take them out at night?

A lot of people ask me, why they need to take them out at night. It’s a good idea to take the dentures out at night because by doing so the gums can rest. Dentures especially full ones, sit on the gums, they make pressure the whole day long so it’s good to give the gums a chance to rest at the end of the day. I always give the sample of wearing a wrist watch day and night. most of us will remove it at night time.

But what happens if somebody wants to go to bed with them? This is actually very common. In these cases, I always advise my patients to remove them at least for an hour a day, maybe when they are having a bath and massage the gums with the index finger to aid blood circulation.

Make sure to read our next article where I will be answering the most often questions, I get ask in the practice. And if you have any question of your own why don’t you give me a call. I am also available online on our brand-new Tele Dental service. Check out our website and book a time that suits you best. Looking forward to hearing from you and answering all your questions

Article by Mario Viveros, Clinical Dental Technician at Dental Tech Group

We offer an online consultation with our team to help discuss or support our patients with any of their dental or denture issues without having to leave their house

Dental Tech Denture Clinics

DUBLIN – Whitehall House, Terenure, Dublin 6W – Call 01 4551866

WEXFORD – The Whitemill Medical Centre, Wexford – Call 053 9192999

WATERFORD – Waterford Health Park, Waterford – Call 051 365999

KILDARE – Vista Primary Care, Naas, Kildare – Call 01 4551866