Can Dentures Contribute to Bad Breath?

There are numerous causes for bad breath. It could be bacteria accumulation in your mouth, small remnants of food trapped between your teeth, the type of food you've most recently eaten, smoking, or even acid making its way up through your esophagus. Whether your teeth are entirely your own or not, you can still be affected by bad breath. People who wear dentures are not any more or less likely to be affected by bad breath, and yet there can be some ways to prevent this that are unique to dentures. So how can you avoid bad breath when you have dentures?

Cleaning

Keeping your dentures clean is a critical step to avoiding bad breath. You can clean your dentures with toothpaste, but opt for a type specifically designed for dentures. Regular toothpastes have abrasive agents which can degrade prosthetic teeth over time. Given the detachable nature of dentures, you can also remove them from your mouth and give them a gentle wash with soap and water. Be sure to soak your dentures overnight in a solution designed for the task. The effervescent nature of these solutions will clean your dentures using oxidation, wherein multiple air bubbles burst against your dentures, removing debris and anything that could contribute to your bad breath.

Maintenance

Damaged dentures or those that need an upgrade can also contribute to bad breath. But how can this be the case? A crack in any part of the dentures creates a place for oral bacteria to easily accumulate, which can result in bad breath even with regular cleaning. Denture repairs will be necessary if this was the case. It could also be that your dentures need to be relined, adding an extra layer of resin to the base plates in order to achieve a better fit. This is periodically required to reflect the minute ways in which the shape of your mouth changes as you age. But how do improperly fitting dentures affect your breath?

Dentures with a precise fit will hug the roof or base of your mouth. Your saliva moisturises the base, creating suction as the dentures come into contact with the interior of your mouth. When the dentures no longer fit as well as they used to, this suction is reduced, or even gone. This creates a pocket when miniscule amounts of food can gather, leading to potentially bad breath.

If your dentures are rigorously cleaned and well maintained and there's nothing that you consume that would contribute to your bad breath, be sure to see your dentist to ensure that it's not caused by intestinal distress.