Denture Diet: How Does My Restoration Affect My Nutrition?

Your teeth play a crucial role in your ability to bite into food and pulverize it enough to be easily swallowed and digested. Unfortunately, when some go missing, you can develop gastrointestinal problems from ingesting overly large pieces or malnutrition from sticking to softer, less wholesome meals.

Your dentist can provide lifelike dentures to replace missing teeth and improve your bite force, but many patients wonder how this might also affect their nutritional health. If you’re asking yourself whether you can eat normally with your prosthetics, keep reading to learn more!

How Does Tooth Loss Affect Nutrition?

Your body doesn’t naturally create all the vitamins and minerals needed to function at its peak, so it relies on you to consume them. Eating wholesome ingredients like lean proteins, fruits, and vegetables supports your general and oral well-being.

Biting into anything can be challenging and uncomfortable with gaps in your grin, and unfortunately, many healthy options are harder to chew. Studies have shown that chewing food longer helps make it easier for your stomach to digest it and absorb nutrients. You could develop vitamin deficiencies, indigestion, and other issues as a result.   

How Do Dentures Affect Nutrition?

Your dentist can fit you with customized dentures to restore your smile’s appearance and functionality. These prosthetics return anywhere from 20% to 50% of your original bite force, though they don’t exert the same power as your natural teeth. It’s easy to assume that they make eating easier, leading to better overall nutrition.

However, that’s not necessarily the case! A 2022 study revealed that denture-wearers experience a significant decline in certain nutritional markers. Researchers matched the dental records of more than 10,000 people to medical laboratory data that included specific markers for malnutrition. They compared the lab results from two years before a patient received their restoration to two years afterward. They found that there was a significant decline that wasn’t present in patients without dentures.

Why Do Dentures Affect Nutrition?

It’s believed that denture-wearers may not receive enough nutrients from their diet because they might struggle to chew food thoroughly enough. If it’s not broken down into small enough particles, your digestive system struggles to absorb the different nutrients.

You can try cutting your food into smaller pieces that can be chewed slowly and deliberately. You can also add high-nutrient, denture-friendly options to your diet, like eggs, cottage cheese, meatloaf, broiled fish, applesauce, oatmeal, rice, pasta, or potatoes.

If you’re worried that you can’t eat properly with your prosthetics in place, it may be time to talk with your dentist about implant dentures, a more stable solution for tooth loss.

About the Practice

Patients at Rubal Dentistry Azle benefit from a husband-and-wife dental duo who are passionate about helping you and your family build happy, healthy smiles. Drs. Frank and Jodie Rubal share 30+ years of combined experience and can help with everything from basic preventative care to replacing lost teeth. They offer a full array of services conveniently under one roof and combine a caring approach with state-of-the-art technology to deliver accurate results while increasing patient comfort. You can request an appointment on the website or call (817) 444-2585.