Will Dentures Affect the Way I Pronounce My Words?

Denture treatment in Whitby, ON, normalizes eating, speaking, and smiling for many people. Dental research estimates that about 20 million Americans use dentures today. If you have dentures, you must take proper care of them to last as long as possible.

However, when issued with new dentures, they can make talking difficult. Even if they have a perfect fit, they may need some adjustment time. When you first learned speech, you used to completely different set of teeth. If you have dentures that do not fit properly or missing teeth before your new set, your mouth needs a compensation grace period.

Before discussing the tips for speech you need with your first set of dentures, let’s discuss the four most common types of dentures.

Types of Dentures

Adults use false teeth to replace missing teeth. The neighboring teeth may misalign and shift towards the tooth gap if you fail to do so. Therefore, proper denture care is just like caring for your natural teeth. There are four main types of denture treatments at Brooklin Village Dental Care, namely:

• Fixed Partial dentures –it uses one or more false teeth held between two healthy teeth o two sides. This denture is fixed, so you need a dentist to take it off when necessary.
• Removable partial dentures –They are also false teeth, but unlike the first type, you can remove then by yourself. This type of denture includes one or more false teeth held by tooth clasts fitting into the neighboring teeth. They are easy to take out at night and for cleaning.
• Complete dentures – They are also called full dentures and are used in the case when one loses all their teeth due to an infection or other causes. You can take out your complete dentures for cleaning by yourself or have your dentist do it.
• Implant-Supported Dentures –These use tooth implants to support a false tooth or a fixed dental bridge. Your dentist surgically puts a small titanium post into your jawbone. With time, the metallic post fuses with the surrounding bone. The bone then acts as an anchor for holding one or more false teeth into place.

Speaking With Dentures

People with dentures may feel uncomfortable speaking in public when they get dentures for the first time. It can be awkward speaking when you cannot pronounce things correctly, for example, having trouble with F and S sounds.

Dentures may also make irritating click sounds during speech or even shift position. However, here are some tips to help you adapt to speaking using your new dentures.

Talk to Others

We encourage patients wearing partial or overdentures to speak a lot during their adjustment period. While it can be uncomfortable to do it in public, there are many other options.

A spouse, a life partner, or work colleagues provide enough comfort as they cannot criticize the person wearing dentures as strangers would. A spouse knows their partner well, and understanding them is easier even with dentures.

Read Audibly Infront of a Mirror

If you are still uncomfortable talking in front of other people, you can practice by yourself. You can do this by reading your favorite book in front of a mirror as it provides a variety of varied sounds and inflections.

Additionally, when practicing in front of a mirror, you can see the mouth and teeth movements, which provides proper insights into the problems you have to recover quicker.

Slow down during a speech

If you have dentures and you hear clicking sounds when speaking, it’s advisable to slow down when speaking and take some time to reflect n what you want to say. Talking slowly avoids extra movements of the dentures that can lift and shift the lower denture.

The stability of the lower dentures requires additional help from the cheek muscles, tongue, and lips. Initially, these muscles may involuntarily try to kick out the foreign denture from position but will soon adapt to the new positioning.

Bite Down before Talking

If all of the above does not work and you still have issues keeping your dentures in the right position during speech, gently biting down before you speak can help retain your denture. This action pushes the denture in the correct spot and keeps it there.