What Kind Of Cleaner Is Best For Dentures And Partials?

You need to keep your dentures and partials clean to make them last long and stain-free. As proper care of your dentures is crucial, what kind of cleaner is best for dentures andpartials?

Before jumping straight into today's topic, let's discuss why cleaning dentures and partials are important?

Importance of Cleaning Your Dentures and Partials

Cleaning your dentures daily is essential. It increases your dentures' lifespan and makes them remain aesthetically pleasing like before when you first applied them. Another reason for keeping your partial dentures clean is to maintain your overall oral health. After all, cleaning your dentures is no rocket science. It can be done in just 5 minutes or less, or you soak them overnight while you take a good sound sleep.

So, how do they do that? Denture cleaners usually have sodium hypochlorite as their primary cleaning agent. It is mixed with potassium, citric acid, sodium perborate, and sodium bicarbonate to develop a good cleaning effect against deep biofilms.

Why they need cleaning?

Microorganism build-up on your dentures just like they develop on your natural teeth. If plaque is not deep enough, water can help remove stains. Otherwise, you may need denture cleaners to remove stains, and food debris stuck on your dentures. Thus, you should invest in some good-quality denture cleaners.  

What are the types of denture cleaners?

Typically, denture cleaners have four types: denture pastes, tablets, solutions, and wipes. But you don't have to stick with only one of them. In fact, you should mix and match these cleaners to get the optimum cleaning results. Just like your natural teeth, you brush, floss, and gargle with mouthwash instead of just sticking to only one oral hygiene practice.

Denture Paste

Denture paste work like your regular toothpaste. However, these two have one significant difference. Denture pastes are a lot gentler as compared to other toothpaste. Because dentures are not as strong as your natural teeth, they need less abrasive chemicals to prevent damage. It is recommended to use denture paste with a soft-bristle toothbrush after every meal.

Tablets

Tablets have a fizzy effect. That means they produce a bubbling effect when interacting with water. As a result, cleaning chemicals dissolve in water to remove plaque and stains. The waves in a water glass (produced by the fizzing reaction of tablets) also help clean dentures. The process hardly takes a few minutes to clean your dentures. But some pills may take more time. In that case, you should soak your dentures overnight to get them clean.

Solutions

Denture solutions work just like tablets. You need to soak your denture in a water container and add a few drops of denture solution. However, the solution doesn't produce a bubbling effect. Also, you need to make sure not to soak your dentures in hot water. As hot water can deform your dentures.

Wipes

Out of these four types, wipes are the only ones that are not for deep cleaning. You can simply use them to have a quick cleaning until you get time to use other cleaning types.

What you should avoid

You must avoid using hard-bristled brushes and strong cleansers, as they can likely damage your dentures. Moreover, bleaching products and whitening toothpaste should also be avoided as they can change the color and corrode your dentures. Also, check out our guide to find out "How to care for dentures and partials?"