Someone once said that wearing dentures felt like having a large wooden shoehorn in their mouth. They described it as alien and bizarre and uncomfortable, there's this alien presence and now it's permanently a part of you. People with dentures adjust, of course, and grow used to them and move on with their lives more or less as before. But no one can argue that if you had to choose between dentures and your real teeth, the latter option would be infinitely better.
    People with healthy teeth take them for granted. That is, they hardly ever think about the benefits of having a mouthful of healthy, hard, beautiful chompers. People with unhealthy teeth, on the other hand, never take anything about their teeth for granted. Every little improvement is a slice of heaven, every sign of further decay is hell on earth. Your teeth affect the way you talk, smile, eat, and live from moment to moment. Tooth pain is like a migraine headache, it's always there, literally in your face, you can't escape it. It's obvious, then, why people with bad teeth tend to take them less for granted than people with good teeth.
HOWEVER-you can rest assured that people with bad teeth took their teeth for granted once upon a time, and furthermore that they did so to a much more extreme degree than people with good teeth do. That is, people with good teeth usually are quite conscientious about cleaning their teeth, caring for them, flossing, brushing, rinsing-even if merely out of rote habit, even if healthy teeth are the farthest thing from their mind, they care for them minutely and thus avoid suffering and embarrassment. People with bad teeth, on the other hand, people who eventually need dentures, never took these simple steps to avoid tooth decay and gum disease and now they're paying for it.
Considering how important our teeth are to us, let's briefly look at five ways in which we can keep our teeth healthy and strong and avoid the horrors of dentures in the future.
1.    Floss, floss, floss. To avoid dentures, floss. To keep the nightmare of dentures from your teeth's sweet dreams, floss morning, noon, and night. Some folks only floss in the morning and at night-but that's better than flossing only at night. But even flossing only at night is better than nothing. Now, you might say: But if I've flossed at night why should I floss in the morning. I'm not eating during the night. Good point! You should be aware, though, that when you floss you're going after other things besides food. Your mouth is a complicated area, warm and moist and the perfect petri dish for hordes of bacteria. Flossing attacks these hard to see things, too. Floss to prevent dentures!
2.    Mouthwash. Again, morning, noon, and night, try to rinse your mouth with a good mouthwash. Mouthwash is a great bacteria killer also, and helps to keep your gums pink and firm, and definitely helps to prevent dentures.
3.    Brushing. This is an obvious one, you've been hearing it from your mother and dentist from the time you came into the world. But you'd be surprised at the number of people who either avoid it altogether or do it halfheartedly. They're too tired, they're too rushed, they're too this, they're too that. But a vigorous, lengthy, intelligent brushing (at least three time a day) is just what your teeth need. Brushing your teeth will prevent the need for dentures.
4.    Avoid foods and snacks high in sugar. Another obvious one, you'll say, but again it's one that most of us aren't good at following. Sugary snacks rot your teeth faster than almost anything else. If you're going to eat a lot of sugary snacks no matter what, it's good to carry around a small toothbrush and tube of toothpaste so that you can brush off the sugar coating rather than let it sit there all day. You eat the sugar, the sugar eats your teeth. Avoiding an overabundance of sugar will help you prevent dentures.
5.    This last tip might seem bizarre, and it only applies to a few people, but I thought I should mention it anyhow. Eating disorders are on the rise, bulimia among them, and allow me to insist that bulimia is exactly as bad for the teeth as it is for the body. Bulimia will weaken your teeth before you realized what's happened. Bulimia sufferers have testified to having had teeth crumble apart as little a year after their affliction began. Eat normally, take the basic steps of tooth care, and you'll be sure to prevent the need for dentures.