What makes people happy with their dentures? It turns out that denture fit plays a huge part in that. Especially one type of denture fit: retention.

However, the link isn’t direct. Instead, there’s an important mediating factor: your ability to chew.

Retention: An Important Part of Denture Fit

As we’ve talked about before, there are three key types of denture fit: retention, support, and stability. Retention is the ability of your dentures to resist forces that want to pull them out. It is the ability of dentures to stay in your mouth when you talk or laugh. It also helps your dentures stay in place when chewing sticky foods. Since traditional dentures are held in place simply with suction, retention is a major challenge for them.

Recent studies highlight how important this type of denture fit is to quality of life and satisfaction. Unfortunately, this is a type of denture fit that is challenging for traditional dentures to achieve.

Function Matters Most

In a study last year, researchers looked at how many different aspects of dentures affected people’s satisfaction with their dentures. After looking at both physical function of the dentures and social factors, they concluded it was function that mattered most for denture satisfaction.

The type of function that made the most difference for people was eating. About 42% of people in this study complained about functional problems with their dentures, and 98% of them complained about their ability to eat.

In most cases, they couldn’t eat because they had poor retention of dentures. This linked poor denture retention to unhappiness with dentures.

Objective Chewing Measurements Confirm Reports

While the previous study looked primarily at people’s reports about denture retention and function, a new study just published last week added objective measurements of chewing to the assessment. The new measurements confirm the importance of retention on chewing ability and people’s happiness with dentures.

In the new study, researchers used a standard measure of denture retention to classify dentures as either acceptable or unacceptable. Then they looked at both people’s reports of their ability to chew and the measurements of chewing ability using both bite force and the ability to reduce peanuts down to a particular particle size.

They confirmed that poor chewing ability, both in terms of bite force and the ability to reduce peanuts in size, were linked to denture satisfaction. Better chewing meant more denture satisfaction.

In addition to this general observation, researchers proposed a specific standard for denture chewing. They said that the ability to reduce peanuts to particles below 3.6 mm should be considered the standard for chewing efficiency for denture patients.

Better Retention, Better Chewing, Better Satisfaction

If you are unhappy with your current dentures and are looking for new dentures that fit better so you can chew better, consider FOY® Dentures. FOY® Dentures are designed so they enlist some of your chewing muscles to improve retention, which helps them stay in place. This can improve chewing and will make you happier with your dentures.

To learn how you might benefit from better denture fit, please contact a local FOY® Denture dentist today.