Advice on restoring dirty dentures !

[gingeroots]

More care related problems regarding my 92 year old mother .

I've taken to changing the water in her denture bath ,replacing with a steradent tablet and fresh water but have never really got involved .
This week she says her mouth is sore and that the lower plate has a " sharp edge " .
Dentist today says it's dirt and spends some time cleaning them .
What I thought was a hole ( yellow raised bit with black in middle ) now removed .
But I can feel with my fingers that there is still some rough residue remaining .
How can I remove it ?

Emery board on the finer side.

Really ?
My son suggested sand paper .
Mmmm maybe those very fine sandpaper type mitts that you can get for removing hair from your legs might do the job ..

anyone else ?
I know it's not sexy but ...dentures are out of my range of experience and I can see that it's another aspect of my mothers care I'm going to have to ( discreetly ) take charge of .

Dentist here. The roughness is probably tartar. Here is what to do:

1. Brush denture with liquid soap and cold water. .
2. Soak denture in neat white vinegar for 10 mins. This will soften the tartar.
3. Brush again.
4. Repeat until all visible yellow, white, black, brown or green deposits are gone. You can do it over several days if required.
5. Daily soak in steradent for 10 minutes.

I see lots of elderly people in nursing homes and their own homes. Carers are generally poor with oral and denture hygiene. You need to do it for her. If you can't be there everyday a weekly vinegar soak is a good plan.

An emery board is a terrible idea. It will not remove tartar but will scratch the acrylic, so new tartar will stick more easily. The same goes for toothpaste. Use liquid soap (shampoo or fairy liquid is fine) or a proper denture paste.

Google denture repairists or technicians locally. They should (for a fee) be able to clean up and repolish the denture like new. I would recommend this if the denture has been cleaned in the past with toothpaste, emery boards etc.

Thank you so so much . ( I did wonder about the sandpaper ).

My mum leaves the dentures in water + steradent overnight .
Is that wrong ,should they only be soaked for 10 mins ?
I'm not sure how well she rinses them before she puts them in as she's restricted with bandaged fingers ( ongoing gout problem ) .

I asked the dentist I took mum to ( who cleaned most of it off ) if he thought she should be fitted for new dentures but he said it would be unlikely to be worth it in terms of a better fit . ( I presume because of bone shrinkage ? )
But he didn't actually look in her mouth ,just cleaned the lower plate dentures that she took out .

She's leaving the lower plate out now and using alcohol free Cordosyl .

Thank you so much again .
My mum is in her 90's ,lives alone ,and is not good about eating ,so it's important that her mouth is ok !
She's also very difficult ,but that's another story !

This about the Boer War is very scary

"During the war, the army lost 8000 men in battle and almost as many to dental disease. More than 2000 were evacuated because of dental problems, while a further 5000 were found unfit for duty because there were no dentures to replace the teeth they lost. Men without molars swallowed unmasticated lumps of meat, which led to debilitating digestive problems. An inspection of the Cheshire regiment revealed that hardly any men had molars, prompting an urgent request for mincing machines. "

notes.utk.edu/bio/greenberg.nsf/f83efe294f5c85f585257015006e1949/862c06bdaefb4cc985257501005cdbbb?OpenDocument

generally, elderly people do not do well with changes. Mouths are intimate and sensitive, and changes here are particularly hard to cope with. I would probably agree with the dentist about new dentures probably not being a solution. Lots of people wear an upper denture only, and often eat better like that than with upper and lower dentures. The only thing not yet suggested which might be useful for keeping dentures in place, cushioned and food sealed out is denture adhesive, like Polygrip (which I think is better than Fixodent and far far superior to Seabond, which is foul).

I'd heard that stat about the Boer war before. A friend of mine worked for the MOD as a dentist. She spent quite a lot of time on getting personnel fit for tours. Part of the problem was that not only was dental disease endemic in the general population, but was a particularly rife in the social classes from which infantry were drawn. Their disease was made worse by the conditions they fought in, with diseases like trench mouth very common.

Thank you bonzo - what you say makes sense .

Helpful to know about people wearing top plate only .

Trench mouth - what a truly dreadful thought .
As if the rest of it ,fighting and conditions ,weren't dreadful enough .