Refused Immediate Dentures???

This is my first post, although I have been an avid reader of this site for the last 3 months. If it wasn't for this site and the success stories I have read, I don't think I could have made the first step to contact a dentist.

I am 39 years old and have not visited a dentist in 30 years. It has got to the stage where I am constantly thinking about teeth, not sleeping thinking about teeth and I have to do something about it.

After eventually contacting a dentist in February and receiving a lovely reply, it still took me until May to actually email them for an appointment. I could not telephone, but after several emails I finally made the appointment. This is a private practice that is currently accepting NHS patients (few and far between, I know). The lady I was dealing with said she could make an NHS appointment for me.

Well, the day arrived and I had to fill out a questionnaire. One of the questions was "How long since you last visited a dentist?" How embarassed was I?...... it took me a while to actually be able to write "30 years".

I was then called through to the room and introduced to a lady dentist. She told me to sit in "the big chair". Amazingly I sat in the chair and she asked me a few questions. She then looked in my mouth (how ashamed did I feel?) The outcome is that I have gingivitis and require 9 or 10 extractions and a few fillings. I explained that I would like to mix nhs and private care and would like to look into implants. Whatever treatment I need, I will have to be sedated, which she said wouldn't be a problem. This could all be done in one session.

After reading everybody elses journals, I imagined that I would have to go back for impressions to be taken for immediate partial dentures. When I enquired about this, I was told that I would have to make and appointment for the extractions (a month away) and then wait another 3 months before I could consider having partial dentures or implants.

After taking such a big step and expecting immediate dentures, I now face having to wait 3 months with ugly looking teeth and gaps where 9 or 10 teeth should be.

Any advice or opinions woul be greatly appreciated.....................

Help!!!!!

Hi tooscared -

I am sorry about you having to wait to get your dentures . . .You said 9 or 10 extractions, are you talking about top and bottom partials? I'm in the US, so I have no idea how things work where you are.

When I was going to have my bottom partial done (which is in the process as we speak), because it is a permanent partial, my dentist wanted to wait until my 3 lower extractions had all healed for at least 8 weeks before getting the impressions done, and now it's taken almost another month, for trying in the metal frame, then the frame with wax, then the frame with wax and teeth, and finally getting the frame with acrylic and teeth. It's been one appointment a week for me to get this done, and I have been walking around missing a bottom front tooth. She said that I could have gotten an immediate partial denture, also called a flipper, but that would have added another couple of hundred dollars to the cost - and it wouldn't work well for eating, as there wouldn't be any anchors on it to hold it to the teeth I do have.

I opted to wait the almost 3 months between the last extraction and getting just the permanent partial - and for me, just the one tooth missing in the lower front hasn't been as bad as I thought it would be.

So, that might be why she wouldn't do the immediate for you, they are not meant to be used the same way a permanent one is. At least it's something you can ask her about if you feel comfortable enough.

Good luck to you though, with however it all works out!

Dear Tooscared,

I too had many extractions both upper and lower. I had only 2 teeth left on the bottom, so when they extracted the 14 teeth I had to have immediate partials. I paid $800 for the temp partials, both upper and lower. About a week before the extraction appointment I had impressions for the upper and lower temp partials done. The day of the extractions, I left the dentist with a new upper and lower temp partial. The previous message is correct, they are "temps" they are big, bulky and sort of plastic looking. My dentist advised me to get them ( Which I would have done no matter what) I needed to be in the public right away, and they don't have any claps to hold them in place. My extraction date was March 23 and today is May 29th, next week my nice new perm partials will finally be ready. Because the swelling has gone down so much that the partials do not fit. I use a tube of fixodent every week, it's the only way the temps will stay in place. I would ask the dentist if you could have a temp partial, it's helps with the healing, to have the extraction sites covered helped my case. Here in the USA there are places that give you 24 hour partials, you can always go to one of these places and have them make your partials. They charge around $300 here in the USA, I paid more because I went through my dentist, but you could get them on your own. I can't wait for my perm partials next week. I optd to have thermalflex partials, they normally have metal claps, I chose a new method and have my patials constructed with tooth colored claps, you can't even see them once they are on my teeth. I still have the temps in place, they are a pain, but well worth the money.
Good luck to you !!

Thank you for replying JPnewSmile and Bumpthumper. I will be having various teeth removed from the top and bottom and was told I would need partial dentures. As they are mostly at the back and sides, she said that after my mouth was cleaned of plaque and tarter and the teeth were removed, my mouth would feel very empty. She also said that she would advise against having immediate temporary partials, as she wanted to remove everything that shouldn't be in my mouth, before I decided what I wanted as replacements and that the immediate temporaries were a waste of time because they wouldn't fit correctly. Is this because she said I had gingivitis I wonder? Is it true that the gums healed quicker with immediate dentures in place?