Foods to Eat with New Dentures: What Can You Eat With Dentures?
Eating with new dentures can suposse a challenge to beginners. With our detailled breakdown, find out what you can eat during the first days after surgery and how to progressively adapt to eating with new dentures. Recover your confident smile and go through a smooth healing process with our meal recomendations for each day after surgery!
Table of Contents
How to Eat with Dentures? —An Introduction
Adjusting to life with new dentures can feel like a chore. Smiling, talking, swallowing, and chewing food—the basic activities demand ‘new learning’ and ‘adaptation.’ There are several scientific studies on the best ways to revisit the chewing of food for new denture wearers. And many more discuss how implant-supported dentures made them more confident in eating compared to the traditional ones. Whether you are a first-time denture wearer or transitioning from conventional dentures to the implant-supported type, it is critical to understand when and how to eat certain foods, ensuring easy adoption of the dentures whilst ensuring implant longevity.
The Secret to Comfortable Eating with New Dentures—Top Tips
Implant-supported dentures are exciting for all, especially if you have waited long to make the decision or have been struggling with no teeth or loose, uncomfortable dentures before.
Good things take time, and so will the new teeth.
Here are some tips to help you figure out the dentures before you complain, “I can’t eat with my new dentures.”
Go slow: Eating with new dentures, speaking, and swallowing can take time. Be patient and go slow. Eat in small bites and specific types of foods as advised by the dentist and slowly transition to normal dietary and oral patterns.
Take one bite at a time—be careful: Despite following the list of best foods to eat with new dentures, avoid large bites with the front teeth, tearing tough foods, or foods that need massive grinding. Find the sore spots while eating and revisit the dentist for adjustments. Implant-supported dentures are far more stable and retentive than the traditional ones; feel free to chew as and how you like once you feel confident with them.
Revisit your dentist for adjustments: Work closely with your dentist and visit as scheduled to get the new dentures adjusted and customized to fit your mouth better.
Let your mouth adapt and feel confident: The confidence to eat and talk will grow as days pass and the new dentures start to feel comfortable. It may take weeks to months, but once adjusted, it stays for life.
Clean your dentures: Follow every personalized oral hygiene instruction as given by your dental implantologist to ensure gum health and denture longevity.
Eating With Dentures for the First Time—What to Eat First
"Implant-supported dentures are far more stable and retentive than the traditional ones; feel free to chew as and how you like once you feel confident with them. "
You’ve just got your new implant-supported dentures placed. Let’s focus on the best foods for new denture wearers:
Week 1 (days 0-7):
The first week is unquestionably tough. The dentures feel new and heavy for the gums. The mouth may feel sensitive and sore. It is best not to strain the denture at all. Here’s what you can eat:
Mechanical soft diets: These are foods that have been mechanically made soft and mushy using grinders and blenders. For instance:
- Chopped and mashed foods: mashed potatoes, rice and lentil broths, scrambled soft eggs, boiled and crushed vegetables, shavings of meat crushed and added to soft porridges, poached fish, tuna shavings in rice broths, etc.
- Pureed foods: Puddings, custards, oatmeal pancakes, applesauce, meat and vegetable soups, meat broths, mashed fruits like avocados and bananas, milkshakes, fruit smoothies, etc.
- Soft foods: Yogurts, milk, non-crunchy peanut butter, cottage cheese, etc.
The Food Transitions with New Implant-supported Dentures—A Breakdown
Week 2 (days 8-15):
The mechanical soft foods continue to reign; however, not all foods need complete grinding and mashing. You can slowly attempt a combination of soft, slightly textured, and moist foods. For example:
- Rice porridge
- Overcooked chicken or fish, gently flaked with a fork
- Scrambled eggs or a soft omelet with cheese
- Applesauce
- Greek yogurt with honey and mashed bananas or stewed apple slices.
- Tofu stir-fried with thoroughly cooked and moist vegetables in small cubes
- Mashed potatoes, steamed broccoli, etc.
- Creamy potato leek soups
- Steamed fish (like tilapia) with ginger shredded with a fork
- Baked salmon with well-cooked vegetable soups.
You can now start snacking on thin slices of bread or softened cookies with cottage cheese or mashed avocados.
Additional tips for eating with new dentures until the end of the first two weeks:
- Food will taste dull: Taste sensations are severely dampened in the initial days and slowly become better with time.
- Temperature of foods: Dentures are made of insulators. Go easy with hot foods. You may not realize how hot the food is until you burn your tongue.
- Sip fluids intermittently: Chewing with new dentures and swallowing can be tedious in the initial days. Tiny food particles may get stuck. A sip of water or a drink while dining works best.
Weeks 3-4 (days 16-30):
It’s time to reintroduce textured food in larger bites after the first 2 weeks. The typical foods to eat with new dentures include:
- Boiled rice
- Finely cut vegetables, parboiled and stir-fired
- Well-cooked, moist, and larger slices of fish, meat, and eggs
- Meat stews
- Meatballs
- Feta or ricotta cheese
- Pasta and noodles
- Sliced fruits
- Overnight soaked or cooked oatmeal
- Soft bread slices
- Cakes and muffins
Additionally, always sit and eat your food off a plate; rushing through meals can disrupt chewing patterns and force you to gulp down large bites, ruining digestion.
Post 30 days, unless you have sore spots or are still finding it difficult to cope, you’re good to eat most of the cooked foods without slicing and even chopped raw, crunchy salads.
Foods to avoid with new dentures
Certain foods are best avoided with dentures altogether; however, feel free to eat them once in a while after you have adjusted to the new dentures.
- Unsoaked, hard nuts
- Chewing gums
- Gooey sticky sugary treats
- Whole fresh fruits
- Tough red meat
- Crispy and crusty breads
Denture Hygiene—Underrated Yet Critical
"Chewing with new dentures and swallowing can be tedious in the initial days. Tiny food particles may get stuck. A sip of water or a drink while dining works best "
Unlike traditional dentures, implant-supported dentures are retentive and tenacious to the gums. Thus, it may not be possible to clean them too often. However, it is advisable to maintain good oral hygiene daily.
- Brush your dentures while in the mouth using a soft toothbrush and non-abrasive toothpaste
- Remove the dentures before sleeping
- Clean the tissue surface of the dentures using a soft brush and recommended cleansers
- Floss between implant fixtures in the mouth
- Soak your dentures in a cleansing solution as recommended.
Key Takeaways
Eating with new dentures can be simpler than you think. At Smile 24h, we encourage open dialogues and transparent communications with patients. It helps us personalize treatment plans and post-care advice. We always recommend visiting one of our Smile 24h Expert Clinics, where Certified ZAGA Doctors, known for their expertise in advanced implantology, will address your specific needs and create tailor-made solutions to achieve the best results. Together with the ZAGA Concept and its “patient-first” approach,” the best foods to eat with new dentures are more enjoyable now than before.
Dr. Medha Gupta, a Prosthodontist & Implantologist with over six years of clinical experience, is also a Medical Communication Expert working with healthcare firms and solopreneurs in India, the EU, the USA, and Singapore. Her expertise lies in transcribing complex medical and dental information into words that resonate with the audience, our readers. As a healthcare business writer and reviewer, she boosts brand credibility for medical/dental practitioners and HealthTech firms by speaking the ‘founder’s mind’ across marketing and sales platforms.
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