Most people swallow some air when eating or drinking. In fact, it’s possible to swallow as much as two quarts of air per day. When someone swallows too much air, the person has a medical condition known as aerophagia. The air we breathe is approximately 78% nitrogen and 21% oxygen by volume, with small amounts of other gases. The human body can use oxygen, and most of swallowed oxygen is absorbed by the body before it gets into the intestines. Nitrogen gas, however, is just passed through the body in the intestines.
Air swallowing can be caused by such actions as drinking through a straw, chewing gum, eating too much, or eating too fast. Poorly fitting or loose dentures also can cause excessive air swallowing. This is because an individual’s mouth produces larger amounts of saliva in response to the poorly fitting dentures, which consequently causes the person to swallow more, even when they are not eating or drinking anything.
Swallowing too much air causes significant amounts of gas to enter the stomach and small bowel in 24 hours, which can cause belching, bloating, or flatulence. Loose dentures also tend to trap air bubbles in the excessive saliva, leading to an increase in burping. It should be remembered that the gums and bones in our mouth change over time. This can cause an individual’s dentures to fit badly, which in turn may manifest itself in a number of symptoms, including bloating and gas. If a person has loose or ill-fitting dentures, they should get them refitted and resized.
The dentist will send dentures that need to be relined (refitted) to a dental laboratory. A technician at the lab will reline the dentures by impressing a moldable denture plastic, usually methacrylate, under the denture. The dental plastic will harden and fill the void created where the oral tissues have shrunken away from the denture.
