While The Denture Fountain of Youth® has the power to rejuvenate your facial appearance, many dentures do just the opposite! They make you look older by increasing the appearance of wrinkles, folds, and jowls. We’ve even looked at how poor dentures can lead to witch’s chin.
But the consequences of poorly fitting dentures don’t affect just your lower face; they can even cause wrinkles around your eyes.
Your Eyes Are Essential to Smiling
Did you know that the only true smiles are those with the eyes? We’re not talking about Tyra Banks’ silly “smize” — we’re talking about the Duchenne smile, which was named after the 19th century anatomist who described the muscles involved in smiling. Guillaume Duchenne recognized that when people were giving a fake or polite smile, the mouth muscles were engaged, but certain muscles around the eyes were not.
These muscles, the orbicularis oculi, help raise the cheeks to make a smile more pronounced. These muscles also contract the eyes and form crow’s feet at the corners of the eyes.
Smiling Can Be Hard for Denture Wearers
But the role of the orbicularis oculi can change for denture wearers. If your dentures don’t properly replace the full height of your natural teeth, they may not show when you smile. You have to work harder to make your mouth smile, which means that the orbicularis oculi will work harder, contract more fully, and create deeper wrinkles and folds around the eyes.
As the composition of your skin changes, it also becomes less elastic, which means that every time you fold the skin, it becomes more likely to retain that fold as a wrinkle. As a result, denture wearers are likely to see an accelerated appearance of wrinkles around the eyes.
How to Avoid Eye Wrinkles
If you want to avoid wrinkles around your eyes due to dentures, skin care can have a dramatic impact. Maintaining elasticity in the skin slows the formation of wrinkles around the eyes.
Of course, skin care won’t address the fact that it’s harder to smile with dentures, and your smile can look very squinty-eyed. To get back your comfortable, easy, youthful smile you need dentures that completely replace the volume of teeth and jawbone lost.
If you are looking for dentures in Columbia, SC that can restore your youthful appearance, please call (803) 781-9090 for an appointment with a denture dentist at Smile Columbia Dentistry.
