Tips for Cleaning Your Dentures

Tips for Cleaning Your Dentures with Common Household Products

Do you wear dentures? If you do, you probably spend a lot of time cleaning them. False teeth can beautify your mouth and keep it that way as long as you take care of them. However, there aren't a lot of options for keeping them fresh and sanitized.

Most denture wearers know about Polident, but that's where the buck stops. So below are some home-spun remedies to help with dirty, broken and dull dentures. You'll find them easy to do and less expensive than most store-brought cures.

Arm & Hammer Baking Soda. This product is a popular way to clean and deodorize dirty dentures. Coat your denture brush with this product and go to work on your dentures. The natural abrasive in this product will easily clean off food particles.

Clorox Bleach. You can whiten up yellow teeth with bleach. Mix one teaspoon of Clorox with a glass of cold water. Soak your dentures for ten minutes and then brush as usual.

L'eggs Sheer Energy Panty Hose. Are your dentures looking a little dull? You can polish them up with a pair of panty hose. The nylon is a mild abrasive. As a result, you can cut off a piece from a clean pair and rub it against your teeth without damaging them.

Krazy Glue. If you loose a tooth on your dentures, a quick fix is to re-apply it with Krazy Glue. Make sure you dry it off first (along with your denture) and hold it into place until it sticks. Afterwards, contact your dentist for a permanent fix.

Heinz White Vinegar. Plaque and other germs can build up on dentures. So, you need to sanitize them on a regular basis. You can do it with vinegar. Vinegar kills bacteria. With this in mind, about once a week, soak your dentures in Heinz White Vinegar over night. Then brush away tartar, plaque and any other build up the next morning with toothpaste.

Ziploc Storage Bags. Have you lost your denture case? If so, replace it temporarily with a Ziploc Storage Bag. All you need to do is unseal a bag and drop your dentures inside it.

WD-40. Is an icky piece of gum stuck on your dentures? Get it off with a little WD-40. Spray it over the gum and it'll slide right off. Afterwards, brush your dentures thoroughly with toothpaste and rinse in order to get rid of the WD-40 residue. (Extra tip: You can get the same results with Peanut Butter. The natural oils in it will loosen up your gum.)

Morton Salt. If you suffer from sore gums due to denture wear, you can soothe them with a little salt. How? Dissolve one teaspoon of Morton's Salt into a glass of warm water and swish the solution around your mouth. Do it for at least one minute.

Did you know?

The Etruscans, people living in the region of Tuscany, Italy during 800 B.C.E., invented dentures by carving individual teeth from ivory, molding bridgework from gold and extracting teeth from the dead.