Taste (gustation)
is defined as the ability to detect flavors from food, minerals and
poisons. Taste is one of the five senses and is a basic function of
life.Taste helps to improve the quality of life and detects poisons to protect you.
There are around 10,000 taste buds in the mouth. Each taste bud has
between 15 and 150 receptor cells that derives a specific flavor such as
salt, sweet, sour, bitter and umami (savory). That equates to 150,000
to 1.5 million receptor cells. These cells turn over every two weeks.
If you are wearing an upper denture (maxillary complete denture), the
roof of the mouth (palate) is most likely covered with acrylic or metal.
There are receptors for taste located all over the soft palate.
Covering the roof of the mouth with a removable complete denture
reduces the ability to taste foods. The technical term for reduced taste
is hypogeusia. Upper complete dentures cause hypogeusia.
If you are wearing an upper complete denture (people also refer to
these as plates), you may be experiencing decreased taste. Foods lose
their sharpness. Food and drink may become bland. The joy of eating for
pleasure gets diminished. But there is a way to improve your taste:
THE PALATE ON THE UPPER DENTURE CAN BE REMOVED
In the construction of an upper denture, the dentist covers the palate
(roof of the mouth) to improve suction. This allows the upper denture
to have better retention and increases the chance the denture will stay
in place during eating.
Your upper denture can be fixed with dental implants.
The dental implants prevent the need for suction of the denture.
Without the need for suction, the dentist can remove the palate on the
denture. This opens up the ability to increase taste and feel
temperature from food and drink. Your quality of life can significantly
improve!
Dental implants = improved taste = improved quality of life
After treating thousands of patients, I have never met a patient that
loved having the roof of his or her mouth covered with either metal or
plastic. They all mentioned the decreased ability to feel temperatures
and taste foods. They are frequently seeking methods to improve taste. Dental implants are the way.
If you are wearing an upper denture, 2-4 dental implants can be used
to fix the upper teeth and prevent them from sliding around or falling
down during eating. Placing dental implants to fix your denture can
increase the pleasure from eating, improve digestion and improve speech.
Dr. David Medford is a dentist in Fort Worth, Texas. Dr. Medford
is trained in Dental Implants, Fort Worth, Texas. Call for a
consultation today.