For several reasons, dentures should not be worn while sleeping.  Most importantly, before you retire for the night, you should remove your dentures and clean them thoroughly.  Place them in a container of water.  Brush your mouth and tongue to remove the plaque on the soft tissues.

Wearing dentures 24 hours a day will increase tissue inflammation and accelerate loss of bone structure.  Sleeping with dentures will also promote calculus and stain formation on your dentures.  Sometimes patients who wear their dentures at night will wake up to find the denture on their pillow, or worse, they lose them.

The old adage is, “When the stars come out, the teeth should come out.”  Well, not exactly, but don’t get in a habit of sleeping with your dentures.