Practicing Speaking with Your Dentures: Say Goodbye to a Lisp with These Tips

I have noticed some actors and narrators have suddenly changed the way they pronounce their S's. They now pronounce words like "Mississippi" as "Mishishippi." I think this is usually a problem with their dentures.

I was taught to "try in" the new denture by setting the actual teeth in wax on a temporary base plate and have the patients approve the appearance of the teeth at the try-in appointment. At this stage, different teeth to change the shape, size or color can be ordered or the teeth moved around by simply melting the pink wax a little and shoving them into new positions. I would sometimes put gold or silver fillings in the denture teeth to add realism to the smile before the appointment or put a space between teeth or make them slightly crooked to match the original teeth and get approval for the way that looked in the mouth at the try-in. If you still have some teeth that are to be extracted at the same time as the denture is given to you, then the real teeth often interfere with the try-in denture and you have to skip a try-in and hope for the best. Dentists can still set the teeth in the lab to allow contact in the front for saying "S" and chewing in the front, but often they don't.

Perhaps the major thing to check at the try-in is the pronunciation, especially of "S." I would have the patient put in the try-in denture and count from 1 to 10 and especially listen for "shix" and "sheven" to come up. Also, "Mississippi" is a good test word. If the teeth are placed in one common style, then the patient finds it impossible to pronounce S's correctly. This is because a lot of dentures have the teeth set so that the front tooth edges cannot be placed together and there is a gap here no matter what the patient tries. A lot of dentists think this will help chewing, or the retention of the dentures, because it prevents chewing with the front edges, but you also won't be able to bite lettuce or salami with the front teeth because it slides back out of your mouth unless you are biting it with your back teeth.

If you have a denture made, I think you should request a try-in appointment to judge for yourself or you will find yourself not being able to pronounce words the same way as you used to. When you hear an actor or narrator suddenly pronouncing "Mister Smith" like "Mishter Shmith" you are hearing a good example of what I am talking about.