Can Denture Adhesive Make You Sick? 3 Side Effects
Denture adhesives can be a wonderful aid as a temporary solution to make you feel more secure for an important social event. But adhesives are not a substitute for well-fitting dentures.
Can denture adhesives really make you sick? The overuse of adhesives does have known side effects that can impact your overall long-term health and well-being.
Using more adhesive does not equate to a stronger hold. A denture that won’t stay in place with a very small amount of adhesive doesn’t fit correctly and should be replaced. If you find yourself using more and more adhesive everyday just to hold your dentures in your mouth, you need new dentures.
Potential Side Effects of Denture Adhesives
Zinc Toxicity
The human body requires zinc in small quantities for good immune function and proper healing. But in large amounts, zinc can be toxic, resulting in prolonged numbness and nerve impairment. In the mid to late-2000s, denture adhesive manufacturers were being sued because their products had been linked to making people sick and causing permanent debilitating nerve damage. Manufacturers of denture adhesives originally added zinc oxide to their formulations to improve adhesion. Most patients who experience the side effects of zinc in denture adhesives use massive quantities of adhesives to “glue their dentures in place” every day for years. It never occurs to them that this is not normal use.
Although you can still buy denture adhesives that contain zinc, such as Fixodent Free, zinc-free formulations are readily available and dominate the market as a safer alternative for denture wearers to use. Creating denture adhesives without zinc has allowed denture adhesive manufacturers to avoid future litigation should patients continue to over-apply their products.
See Also: 4 Easy Ways to Remove Denture Adhesive
Digestive System Distress
Can Fixodent cause stomach problems? Certainly. It is a mixture of complex chemical compounds. Especially if you notice that the adhesive oozes out of the denture or remains on your gums after several hours of use, you are using too much. Swallowing excess amounts of denture adhesive can make you sick—literally—to your stomach. Who really knows what these chemicals will do to your digestive system over time? Fixodent side effects symptoms that patients have reported include mild cases of constipation that impact their ability to have normal bowel movements.
Bone Loss
Bone loss is a normal phenomenon that affects all denture wearers. Without stimulation from teeth or dental implants, the bone that formerly supported your natural teeth no longer has a purpose and begins to melt away. This may not seem like a health problem, but over time it does affect your health because there is less and less bone to support dentures. Your options become fewer when there is very little bone for new dentures to rest upon.
Loose, ill-fitting dentures can actually accelerate bone resorption by putting uneven pressure on the bone, wearing away areas that are subjected to heavy pressure while chewing. The use of products like Poly Grip Powder has side effects of making the denture wearer forget that their denture doesn’t fit well. When denture adhesive is constantly used over an extended period of time, significant bone loss occurs. The way to break the cycle is to have new dentures made that fit correctly and apply uniform pressure spread over the entire ridge while chewing.
See Also: Denture Repair: Things You Need to Know
The Morale to the Story…
When dentures are secured with adhesive, it covers up the real problem: your dentures don’t fit correctly. Many patients fail to realize that their gums and bone structure change and shrink throughout their lifetime. Your favorite denture was never designed to be worn for the rest of your life.
There is no substitute for dentures that fit correctly. European Denture Center partners exclusively with Idaho’s premier state-of-the-art dental laboratory that employs 3D design and manufacturing technology to provide great-looking dentures that are precisely milled to conform to your gums for a secure fit without the use of adhesive. No denture adhesive side effects to make you sick! Just think—this could be your new reality. See our complete line of dentures available at European Denture Center today.
