Will Full Dentures Make Your Mouth Taste of Plastic?
Having all your teeth removed and replaced with full dentures isn't always a quick or easy decision. If you're thinking of having this done, then you may have talked to people you know who've been through the process. They can tell you how it's worked for them.
If a couple of people have mentioned that their dentures gave them a plastic taste in their mouths, then you may worry that this will happen to you. This doesn't sound like a pleasant side effect. Will dentures give you a plastic taste, and how bad is this likely to be?
How Dentures Affect Taste
If you wear standard full dentures, then your false teeth are supported by acrylic plates. These plates sit on the roof of your mouth and under your tongue. They help support your teeth and keep them in place.
When you first start to wear full dentures, you notice changes to the way you taste things. A top plate covers taste buds in the top of the mouth; a bottom plate can cover some taste buds at the back of the mouth. Your tongue and its taste buds come into contact with both plates.
All of this affects your natural sense of taste. For example, taste buds that come into contact with your denture plates, whether they are in your mouth or on your tongue, will identify the acrylic on your dentures and make you taste plastic.
How Long a Plastic Taste Lasts
The good news is, you shouldn't taste the plastic on your dentures for that long. Your taste buds send messages to your brain to identify things in your mouth. While your brain turns these messages into a plastic taste to start with, this isn't likely to give you long-term problems.
Your brain is an intelligent organ. As it gets used to the acrylic being in your mouth all the time, it eventually stops you from noticing it. The taste is blocked out. Once you've worn your dentures for a while, you should lose the plastic taste and things should go back to normal on that front.
If you're worried about how dentures will affect your taste, talk to your dentist. They can tell you how long this plastic taste usually lasts. If you do decide that you prefer not to have your sense of taste messed with, then your dentist can talk to you about options that might not affect your taste buds as much such as implant-based dentures.