The first look

Eileen, 57 from Sheffield thought her dentures looked too large

‘It may sound silly, but when I first got them I was wary about taking them out in case I couldn’t get them back in, and when I looked in the mirror they seemed to look too large.’

Jane, who is 48 and from Watford, didn’t want to look in the mirror

‘Once I got my dentures I made a point of not looking in the mirror. I don’t like taking them out, though obviously I do to clean them. Even at this stage I still felt the stigma which I guess was down to my relatively young age. Goes back to this thing about believing only old people have them, which I now know simply isn’t true.’

Beryl’s, 67 from Rotherham, worried about how people would react

‘My biggest concern at this time was that people would know I was wearing dentures and to be honest I didn’t look at myself for three or four days.’

However, Betty, 67 from Ashford Common didn’t worry about people noticing them, but still had a mixed reaction at first,

‘I didn’t like the way they felt at first, having something in your mouth that shouldn’t be there. But they matched my own teeth well, so whilst I noticed them, I’m pretty sure no one else did.’

Whereas some people were quiet apprehensive, Maurice, 76 from London wasn’t.

‘The first thing I did when I got them was check in the mirror and actually I was quite impressed with how they looked.’

And Tony, 65 from Stanmore was really happy with them

‘For me, adapting to having dentures was not really a problem. I had them because I wanted nice teeth and when I looked in the mirror the first time I thought that’s exactly what I got. I wasn’t worried about people noticing because there was nothing to notice, nothing bad anyway.’