Our teeth do many things for us. They help us to bite, chew, and speak. They also provide vital support for facial structures like lips. And they stimulate bones to make sure that the bones keep supporting the lips, too.
Dentures are supposed to replace all the functions of our natural teeth. They can do this, especially implant dentures, which can stimulate the body to maintain our jaw bones. However, many dentures don’t fulfill all the roles of your natural teeth, and one that’s commonly neglected is lip support.
But when dentures don’t provide enough support for your lips, you can suffer several significant consequences.
Sunken Face
One of the most visible consequences of a lack of lip support is that the face can appear sunken. If dentures don’t fully replace lost teeth as well as lost jaw bone, your lips can sink inward, causing your face to look sunken. The degree of sunkenness, and how much you notice it can vary. However, once your face starts to get sunken, you might notice some of the secondary effects.
Lipstick on Dentures
Lipstick is supposed to mostly be an outward-facing cosmetic. The goal is to get it on the parts of the lips that can be seen outside the mouth, not those inside the mouth.
However, when you don’t have enough support from your dentures, lips will fold more inward, and parts of the lips that used to face outward now fold inward, spreading lipstick on your dentures.
Lipstick on your dentures happens occasionally to everyone, but if it’s happening to you most days, it may be a problem with your dentures.
Increasing Wrinkles and Thinning Lips
When there’s not enough support, it’s not just your lips that fold inward, it’s all the skin around the mouth. This creates numerous folds and wrinkles, contributing to the development of smoker’s lines, nasolabial folds, marionette lines, and lines between your mouth and chin.
Not only that, but the brightly colored part of the lips, called the vermillion, is also folded inward, decreasing its appearance and making your lips look thinner than they are. The combined effect works together to make you look significantly older than you are.
Dry, Chapped, or Sticky Lips
Our lips have several functions. Sure, they’re supposed to look good, and help with speech, but they’re also supposed to create a tight seal that keeps saliva in your mouth. This is supposed to be done with the lips outside of the mouth, but if there’s not enough support, the lips fold inward and get constantly exposed to saliva. This can make your lips dry and chapped, just like licking them often. In addition, dried saliva along with food residue can make them sticky.
Angular Cheilitis
Compromising the seal of your lips can also impact the health and appearance of the corners of your mouth. When lips fold inward, the corners of the mouth might lose their seal, which causes saliva to seep out. This saliva, and the bacteria it hosts, can irritate the skin at the corners of your mouth, making it red, inflamed, and flaky. This is known as angular cheilitis, and it’s unsightly and painful.
Get Dentures That Support Your Lips
Although traditional dentures have a hard time fulfilling all the roles your teeth performed, FOY ® Dentures are designed to do it all, including providing full support for your lips. This will not only make you look younger and healthier, it can help you feel younger and healthier. The result isn’t just a better smile, it can be a better life.
To learn more about the benefits of FOY ® Dentures, please contact a local FOY ® Dentures dentist today for a consultation.
