Dentures: Everything you need to know

When your smile isn’t what it used to be, your self-confidence can take a knock. Comfortable, natural-looking dentures can make a world of difference, but getting dentures for the first time can be daunting. Where do you start? To make the process a bit smoother, we asked several Auckland denture experts to answer the most commonly-asked questions about dentures.

Most dentures fit well when made but over time, they will become loose and may irritate areas of your mouth. This usually can be resolved by having them adjusted or relined by the clinician. Implants may also be connected to loose dentures to help alleviate the frustration they cause. Locator-retained dentures are ideal for this, where surgicallyimplanted metal implants lock onto the denture. These implants are typically placed in the lower jaw because the upper jaw bone structure provides a more stable surface for the denture to rest upon.

If you take care of your dentures, you should be able to use them for five or seven years before they need replacing.

Over time, due to wear, your dentures will need to be relined, remade or rebased, which means making a new base while keeping the existing teeth.

As you age, your mouth naturally changes. This causes your dentures to loosen, making chewing difficult and irritating your gums. At a minimum, see your dentist annually for a check up.

As with any physical aid, there will be wear and tear over time. To avoid unnecessary costs, keeping dentures in top shape will help extend their use.

Brush dentures like your teeth, but skip the toothpaste, as it can damage dentures. Instead, use a softbristle denture brush and water to clean the surface. Rinse dentures with water after each meal. Specialised cleaners can be bought for soaking, but are no substitute for brushing, which removes plaque.

When handling dentures, fill the sink with water or place a folded towel in it so they don’t break if they fall in. If you aren’t wearing them, soak in cool water or a denturecleaning solution to stop from drying out. Beware of cleaning solutions if there’s metal in your dentures, as these could tarnish it. Finally, don’t soak dentures in hot water – they could warp.

Remove dentures every night to allow your gums to rest.

He’s under the fridge; he was sitting on the bench; he was hanging out in the hallway an hour ago.

For days now, we’ve been keeping a running commentary on the mouse, describing what he’s doing and where he’s been, while wilfully ignoring the fact that sooner rather than later someone’s actually going to have to do something about this.

Unfortunately, the obvious someone who should be doing that something is not going to do anything of the sort. We’ve also been keeping a running commentary on her, things like: she bloody well did see him; she walked right past him; she bit me last night.

This latter point is relevant because we thought the cat’s predilections for violence against humans might also apply to rodents. Apparently, it does not.

The arrival of the mouse was announced a few weeks ago in a text spelling out the situation in blunt caps: WE HAVE A MOUSE.

What’s his name? I replied, both because I’m a troll and I didn’t want to deal with this issue, having had to deal with this issue before. Also, I quite like mice. I like their sparkly little eyes; tiny little hands; their tenacity.

Since then, he’s been seen in the laundry; on Thursday in the lounge; Friday, he was otherwise occupied, but on Saturday he was spied hopping down the stairs while going about his business. He looked like he was late for a meeting.

Then on Monday, I cracked open an eye to find the little pervert sitting on the end of the bath watching me wallow. ‘‘Do you mind?,’’ I said.

Creepy voyeurism aside, the mouse’s residency here has been more of a pleasure than a problem, giving the humans something to talk about and the cat something else to ignore.

But while I’d hoped we could all just ignore him, the mouse has crossed a line.

At some point in the past few days, he’s been in the pantry, which, as everyone knows, is the final straw when it comes to living with a mouse.

Had he been able to control himself while in there, then things might be different, but he couldn’t, so his time is up.

Killing is always an awful business, even when it’s the littlest lives it’s ending. Over the years, I’ve dispatched myriad animals by axe, gun and that

JGraeme Tuckett

ames Gunn assembles brilliant soundtracks and then he puts good films over the top of them. Or at least, that’s how it seems to me.

That would put Gunn in some great company. Martin Scorsese used to do pretty much the same thing. And Scorsese wrote the book on using rock and pop music to underpin action that seemingly has nothing to do with the song on the speakers.

I’m not comparing Gunn to Scorsese – no one in their right mind compares Scorsese to anyone, except the directors who Scorsese acknowledges he was influenced by. And nothing

Gunn does will ever punch me in the throat quite like seeing Harvey Keitel’s head fall onto a pillow in Mean Streets, as The Ronettes’ Be My Baby comes banging out of a decent set of speakers, or Sid Vicious’ rendition of My Way suddenly, perfectly, snarling over the end credits of Goodfellas.

But credit where it is due. I can’t hear Redbone’s Come and Get Your Love without remembering the opening scene of Guardians of the Galaxy, nine ridiculous years ago. And from now on, Ritchie Blackmore and Rainbow belting out their cover of Since You’ve Been Gone is always going to play in my head to a scene of five friends freefalling into a space station made of flesh, to free a genetically engineered racoon from a tyrant who wants to rule the universe.

Guardians of the Galaxy is the sort of film franchise in which these things make perfect sense. And Vol. 3 is maybe the perfect way to wrap up the series.

The Guardians are a rag-tag bunch of bastards and orphans, which, by Hollywood mythology, makes them a far stronger unit than a conventional family could ever be.

They found themselves fighting alongside everyone else in the immediate Marvel Universe in the events that led up to Avengers: Endgame in 2019 – and seemed to be set to team up with Thor again at the end of Love and Thunder.

But Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 takes a different path. This is a standalone Guardians yarn – and is all the stronger for it. In fact, GG3 (let’s call it that, I’m not much of a typist and I have a deadline) is an origin story for a character who has been one of the best things about the Marvel Universe, but whose existence has never been properly explained.

Rocket is a genetic experiment. That much we know. But GG3 digs deep into his backstory. Gunn even fashions Rocket’s early years as an occasionally heartbreaking lash against the whole idea of animal experimentation.

The bad guy in GG3 isn’t much more than a demented vivisectionist with delusions of being a god. Unlike most other Marvel villains, even Thanos, he really doesn’t have a sympathetic side. But as played by Chukwudi Iwuji (John Wick 2), he is at least the most charismatic villain Marvel has had to work with in years.

GG3 is a hell of an achievement. Unlike most superhero movies of the last few years, the storytelling here is more than a join-the-dots rehash of a familiar plot.

It’s no secret this will be the last Guardians of the Galaxy film, so I walked in knowing there were no guarantees any of these characters would survive. But also with no real idea of what direction the story would take. And Gunn achieved something I was beginning to think Marvel couldn’t do any more: he kept me engrossed throughout.

GG3 is also quite stunning to look at. Gunn and his designers have gone for a retro-futurist aesthetic that evokes everything from Logan’s Run and 2001: A Space Odyssey to Barbarella and Zardoz.

A couple of years back, Scorsese himself said that superhero movies were nothing more than theme-park rides. And everyone knew that he had a point.

But, once in a while, even a theme-park ride can be bold and a bit unexpected. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 is one of those.

And hell, surely even Scorsese would appreciate that soundtrack.