Dealing with a Denture Allergy

Question submitted by Everly:

I’ve had problems since getting my dentures.
Day One: The area around my eyes was swollen along with my glands.
Day Two: More eye swelling, swollen glands, and my throat swelled up a bit.
Day Three: I had all of the above, plus itching in my mouth, but this time my throat swelled up so much that I started to have difficulty breathing.
That scared me, so I took Benadryl and took the dentures out. That calmed things down a bit. After a couple of weeks when thing had calmed down I tried again. Unfortunately, the symptoms returned. I’m currently not wearing them and don’t know what to do. Is it possible to be allergic to your denture?

Everly

Dear Everly,

It definitely sounds like you are allergic to your dentures. I’m glad you stopped wearing them because there are serious risks to allergies. Your throat could close up completely making it unable for you to breathe. You’ll need to visit an allergist to find out what exactly about the dentures you are allergic to.

A likely possibility is that you are actually allergic to the unreacted monomer in the dentures. A denture base is made of acrylic, which starts in liquid form. The liquid form is a monomer. A chemical reaction takes place in order to get it to solid form, which is a polymer. After this reaction, there is almost always some leftover monomer.

There are two things you can do here. First is to convert the leftover monomer to a polymer. You can do this by submerging the denture in very hot water for several hours. A second option is to have the denture made out of a different material. There are other resins that can be used to form a denture.

Obviously, though, you’ll have to find out what you’re allergic to first. Start with that, then talk to your dentist about your options.

This blog is brought to you by Tucson Prosthodontist Dr. Howard Steinberg.
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