Once you go beyond the age of 20 in life, problems begin to occur in your body.
This may seem like a young age to start at, but the thing is those concerns always start off small.
Maybe your knee is a bit funny some mornings and eventually that becomes an every morning thing, until you need a knee replacement in your 60s.
This doesn’t mean your quality of life is gradually going to get worse no matter what, but you just need to be aware of the constant on different parts of your body.
This is especially true with teeth. We use teeth constantly and no matter how tough the object is, if you use it three times a day for eighty years they will eventually wear out.
It’s why they need constant cleaning and attention to maintain them in full capacity. However, sometimes life takes a turn, and you end up with no teeth.
At this point, you need to start thinking about what you can eat with or without dentures.
Some food, though, is tough to chew without cutting incisors or grinding molars. Like meat. How do you eat meat with no teeth?
In this article, we seek to answer this question to give you clarity on how to eat a juicy steak without issue.
Why Is It Hard To Eat With No Teeth?
One of the main reasons why eating with no teeth is difficult is because there are many things that could damage the tissue around your mouth.
When you have been chewing something all the time, you don’t really think about your gums and tongue getting damaged by too much pressure.
As long as you know not to bite into anything very hard, you should be fine. But when you have no teeth, it’s easier to hurt yourself while trying to eat.
The other reason for having teeth is so that food gets broken down easily. If you were to chew without teeth, it would take longer for food to break down.
That means more energy to break down the food and digest it. So basically, you’re using up more energy than necessary.
So, How Do You Eat Meat With Zero Teeth?
The first step to eating meat without teeth is to prepare the meat properly. Make sure it isn’t raw meat, but cooked meat.
Raw meat has bacteria, which makes it harder for you to swallow. Cooked meat also breaks down better and makes it easy to swallow.
Then, after cooking, you should let it rest until it’s cool enough to handle.
Now that the meat is ready, it’s time to prepare it for eating.
If it is a whole portion of meat, most of the time this means shredding the meat, like pulled pork, until there is nothing that can be choked upon.
While this does make meat more edible for those eating it and the pieces are very small, the person is still required to chew the meat.
Chewing is really the issue, as our teeth are designed to chew, whereas our gums are not.
As such, even with cutting up the meat tiny, it can still hurt to chew it.
Some people in this situation turn to braising or boiling the meat until it is so tender that it falls apart at the touch of a fork.
Unfortunately, this method means that you also lose a lot of the flavor of the meat.
The other option is blending the meat into a paste and serving that instead.
While this does make it very, very easy to eat, it doesn’t make it exactly appetizing to the recipient of this food.
In fact, a lot of people balk at this kind of serving, comparing it to dog food when it is given to them. We do start eating with our eyes after all.
The final way is to use mince in a sauce. This is a happy medium between the two other options.
The meat is already finely ground, so it won’t cause problems when being eaten, it is served in a manner that is appetizing, and it hasn’t lost any of its flavor.
The only real concern with this option is that there are only sauces one person can ingest before getting bored with the flavor or just wanting something different.
Dental Services For People With No Teeth
If you need dental services for people with no teeth, they are available. They come from both private practice dentists and public clinics.
Dentists who provide these services will usually have their own office, where they treat patients.
However, some may work out of offices owned by another dentist. These dentists often specialize in providing dental care for people with no teeth.
There are several ways to find a dentist who provides dental services for people with missing teeth. One common place to look is online.
Many companies offer discounts for dental services to new customers, and you can see if they offer any discounts on services for people with no mouths.
You can also ask friends and family members if they know anyone who works at a clinic that offers these services.
Some clinics accept insurance plans and others don’t. You should check with your insurance provider to see what types of dental services they cover.
If you are uninsured, you should contact local clinics to see if they offer services for people with no mouth.
While many clinics will charge $300-$500 per visit depending on the type of service provided, it is possible to get dental services for free at certain clinics.
Contact your nearest clinic to see if they give away services. Also, consider contacting your local county health department to see if they have any resources that might help you.
Options For People Who Have No Teeth
If you are looking to get replacements for your teeth, so you do not have to go through the rigmarole of preparing your food in certain ways, there are options out there for you:
Dental Implants
One of the most popular methods of replacing missing teeth is the dental implant. A dental implant is an artificial tooth root that is placed into the jawbone.
Once it has become integrated with the bone, it becomes part of the structure of the jaw.
It looks much like a natural tooth root, but it is made of titanium and screws into the jawbone.
In order for this procedure to be successful, you must first have had your jawbone cleaned thoroughly. Then, a titanium post is drilled into the jawbone.
Next, the implant is screwed into the post using a special screwdriver. Finally, a crown is placed over the top of the implant.
This crown looks similar to a normal tooth, and it functions similarly to a natural tooth.
This method requires surgery, which means you’ll likely need general anesthesia (which is why it’s more expensive than other methods).
And because it involves drilling holes into your jawbone, you could experience pain after the surgery.
But once you recover from the surgery, your jaw will feel as good as it did before the operation, and you should regain all of your chewing ability.
A dental implant is considered permanent.
Your dentist will tell you how long it takes for the implant to become fully integrated with the bone, but he or she will also explain whether you need to remove or replace the implant after a few years as the bone shrinks slightly due to aging.
Dentures
Another popular choice is dentures. Like implants, dentures require some work in advance.
First, the gums around the bottom portion of your mouth are trimmed back.
Then, a mold is taken of your upper and lower jaws, and a set of false teeth is created from the mold.
The teeth fit into acrylic resin bases that are attached to the denture itself.
The advantage of dentures is that they are removable; you can take them out when you brush your teeth.
However, they aren’t very attractive, and they may slip off while eating. Plus, dentures can cause problems with speaking and swallowing.
For example, if you forget to put them in, then you won’t be able to speak clearly. They can also fall out during sleep, leading to choking risks.
Unfortunately, aside from these two options, there is a little way of recouping lost teeth.
While dentures and dental implants are very good options, the first can be a little uncomfortable and annoying to maintain, and the second is quite expensive and will need maintenance as well.
However, the science is improving immensely, and we may see further options in the coming years – tooth transplantation being one of the most exciting.
Conclusion
Living without teeth is an unfortunate event to happen to anybody, but luckily there are many ways to combat this debilitating incident in the modern age.
From blending food to having tooth fitting surgeries, the science and safety of procedures has come a long way in just a few years and so you should feel like you have to go without if you have no natural teeth, especially if you want to enjoy some meat with your dinner.