Pros & Cons of Dentures

Dentures or false teeth have a good side and a bad side. If your teeth are rotting and require a great deal of work, dentures may be the way for you to go. However, if you're considering dentures for appearance sake only, you may want to weigh the pros and cons of dentures.

Cost

• Although dentures are expensive, this is usually only a one-time cost. With regular care, they will last for many years. Alternatively, natural teeth usually need much more care and can be more expensive in the long haul. If you regularly need to have cavities filled and other work done, dentures may be a wiser choice since they will save you money.

Condition of Teeth

• If you have missing teeth or crooked teeth, dentures can make your smile prettier. However, beyond appearance, you have your health to consider. Many health problems stem from tooth decay and other dental problems. With dentures, you can eliminate these problems.

Eating

• When they get dentures, people sometimes find they are not able to eat the foods they normally enjoy. However, over time, you many be able to overcome this. As you get used to dentures, it's easier to go back to eating the foods that you had to give up for a while. Once you have found the adhesive that works best for you, some of the eating problems will go away.

Talking

• Sometimes it's hard to talk once you have dentures. Learning to speak clearly again is certainly a con to getting dentures. However, with time, you can master speech problems.

Care

• It can be easier to care for dentures than it is to care for your regular teeth. Trying to clean back teeth is a problem for everyone. In addition, you need to use floss in order to get rid of the food stuck between your teeth. With dentures, you take them out and clean them with a toothbrush or soak them in denture cleaner. The downside to this is since the dentures are removable, food sometimes gets stuck under them. To solve this you just need to take them out and rinse them--however, this can be inconvenient.

Movement of Dentures

• A definite drawback to having dentures is keeping them in place. The adhesive or glue doesn't always last long enough. Therefore, not only when you eat, but also when you talk, the dentures might move.