As with your other senses, your taste is important for your quality of life. If you can’t taste food properly, you lose a bit of life’s joy. Also, you may not want to eat the food you used to enjoy, resulting in poor nutrition. As you age, you may lose your taste, and dentures may make this worse. However, this is not always the case. As long as your dentures are well maintained and properly fitted, you can have better taste no matter your age. So, if you believe your dentures are affecting your taste, talk to your dentist in Fort Myers, FL, about it, so they can assess your mouth and address your problem.
How You Lose Taste as You Age
If food tends to become less flavorful than before, it may not be just about the food. Over time, your sense of taste will diminish; however, it is quite uneven. You may notice a change in your taste for certain flavors. Sometimes, your taste may be fine for other flavors. As elderly people can better taste sweet and salty flavors, they rely on foods that are high in sugar or salt. In addition, the loss of taste may have to do with the loss of smell.
How Dentures Impact Taste
Apart from losing taste naturally with age, dentures can also make it worse. Dentures that cover your upper palate may lead to loss of taste since this portion of the mouth is important in both taste and smell. However, not all people with dentures that cover their palate experience a change in their taste.
When dentures are not properly cleaned, they can accumulate residual deposits that can result in a bad taste or affect your taste of foods. You may have the worst issue if you get cheap dentures since they are made from more porous, low-quality plastic. Because of this, the dentures may pick up more tastes and odors, affecting your natural taste.
How to Reduce the Effect of Dentures
Dentures are not supposed to affect your health or sense of taste. You can minimize their impacts on you by keeping them properly cleaned, reducing the use of creams designed for dentures with better-fitting dentures, and getting implant-supported dentures to avoid covering your upper palates.
By investing in quality dentures and maintaining them properly, you enjoy a higher quality of life. Apart from maintaining your natural sense of taste, properly fitted dentures can give you an attractive look and greater confidence.
