D
dwal92
Junior member
- Joined
- Nov 8, 2017
- Messages
- 1
It's tough to know where to begin without melting your eyeballs with pages of writing (i could rant forever about this), so I will try to keep the background info breif. Some years ago due to circumstances outside of my control I ended up homeless, luckily I have some good friends (truly great people) who helped me in any way they could which made my time without a fixed abode much more pleasant than most. Unfortunately though, my teeth suffered. I had a plate from when I was about 16 after an accident left me without a front tooth, and I believe this may have contributed to the decay of my teeth as the supporting teeth began to crack along the gum line.
After a few months later (now with semi-stable living arrangements) and my teeth started breaking off, often while eating something like a sandwich (bite, chew, swallow, "wait a minute, there wasn't a gap there a moment ago!"). So I started looking for a dentist, which proved more difficult than it seems. NHS Choices were no help, apparently they have a go at dentists who are supposed to be taking on NHS patients but aren't, only apparently nobody at NHS Choices knows how to get through to the department that deals with that.
Anyway, flash forward a few years of waiting, losing more teeth, agonising pain and endless phone calls. At the start of this year I was finally put in tough with a dentist who apparently are really good, and they seemed to live up to this reputations at first. I initially went in for a checkup, and left that day with a full plan for treatment. I had an appointment to have impressions made for dentures, and I was being referred to hospital to have 21 teeth removed under GA (which is what I wanted). So I go and get my impressions made, a week later receive my dentures, and I was anxiously awaiting my hospital appointment when I receive a letter from a different Dental Surgery.
The letter confused me, because it was basically inviting me for a pre-operation consultancy, so they can decide how they are going to remove my teeth. And they certainly were NOT a hospital. So I phone them up to politely enquire as to what the hell was going on. Apparently I had been referred to them to have 21 teeth removed, 2 or 3 teeth at a time, and they were by no means allowed to use GA and would instead be opting for a local. When I explained that I had agreed to have all my teeth removed in one go I was immediately asked if I was sure, and told that if I wanted them all removed at once that I would probably want it done in hospital under GA. I mean I wasn't sure when I specifically asked the dentist for "hospital" and "GA", but i'm glad she asked because otherwise I never would have been sure. But it's not her fault, and I wasn't really in a great mood so I just asked her to refer me to hospital instead and ended the phone call on good terms.
Now onto the fun with the hospital. I went to a consultation at the hospital, where I underwent some sort of medical assessment and was then volunteered to feed Dracula. I was told that I was healthy, and that they were happy to give me GA for the first time and rip these nubs-of-teeth out
happy days. Or not. 4 times my surgery was cancelled and rearranged for a couple of months later. 4 TIMES!!! But at least they didn't book me in for toe-extraction instead of teeth, right?
The day of the surgery was horrible, I couldn't have a cup of tea when I woke up, and I could only get a lift in 2 hours prior to surgery so I was sat around panicking for ages. But actually it wasn't all that bad. I was shown into a little cubical to await surgery. Doctors, nurses, surgeons, and even the drug-guy (that was blatantly a heavy toker who told me he would give me all the best stuff and promised not to accidentally put me in a coma) all came in to see me to talk me through what to expect and to assure me that everything was going to be fine. Then I got whisked off on a wheelchair, into a really cold room with the drug-guy and a medical student. I got into bed and began having a little laugh with the people around me to try and calm my nerves, but once he started injecting me with moonshine I was gone. Somehow I managed to take my socks off though, really don't remember that one.
Coming round was an interesting experience. I was drifting in and out for a while, but didn't feel groggy or uneasy. Just like really drunk without the dizziness or nausea. Nurses were very kind, and my face was super numb due to how much local they gave me while I was under (numbness didn't wear off for a good 12 hours). In all a pretty pleasant experience really, and I don't care what anyone says about NHS Hospital staff every one of the people that I met/spoke to there was brilliant and couldn't do enough for me.
So it seems like I had a pretty good experience. Well we aren't out of the woods yet, because that was about a month ago now. Since then ALL the swelling has gone, my gums are a little tender but that's to be expected because i've been keeping everything away from them since surgery, and I have regained the majority of functionality in my jaw (it feels a little sore when closing, i'm guessing this is because I now have to teeth and my jaw isn't meant to close that much). Only problem is this beautiful 'well made' dentures, do not fit at all. In fact the teeth themselves look amazing, but that is the full extent of the quality of these dentures.
Remember my saying I lost a front tooth when I was 16? Well the impression they made must have shown them that the bone-structure where that tooth attached may have receded (10 years on what more can you expect?) as they have put a little ridge where that tooth would be. This is fine, but the geniuses they are thought "if that one has receded that much in 10 years, the other one must recede twice as much in 4 weeks" as the ridge on the opposing tooth sticks out twice as much. As far as I can tell this ridge is what is stopping my upper denture from fitting. No worries, they can be adjusted. On to the bottoms.
Well this is where I start feeling angry. The mistake on the upper is a little amusing, but this is ridiculous. No "let's be clever here" ridges like the top, more like "let's be complete spanners and not trim this one up properly". Excess acrylic and jagged edges make wearing this not only impossible, but also makes attempts to where it painful (the first time I tried to bite down to force them into position and the result was 30 minutes of washing blood out of my mouth, this was prior to me noticing how poor the quality was).
Back to the dentist I go. But the results have confused me and everyone i've spoken to about it. I explained about the cancelled appointments, and that i'd finally had my teeth removed (5 weeks prior to the appointment), that all the swelling had gone down, the stitches were dissolving, but that the dentures are very poor quality and don't fit. I explained about the edges, excess, and ridge, but before even inspecting the dentures she tries cramming the top (JUST THE TOP) into my mouth. Hearing my yelps expressing extreme pain she pulls out the denture, and says "yeeeeees, well it is still very swollen, the stitches are starting to become loose which is a sign that the swelling is starting to go away, when are you due to have them taken out?", to which I reiterate that they are dissolving, and are almost all gone. She says "ok", and wonders back to her desk to look at paperwork (I guess). At this point she still hasn't actually LOOKED at the dentures, or even handled the lower one.
Her final remarks left me baffled, confused, and still without a functional set of teeth. She said "well, I am not going to reshape your temporary dentures, because in a couple of months when the swelling has gone they will become lose and won't fit properly. however your mouth is healing really well, so I am happy for you to come back in a couple of months and have impressions made for your new permanent dentures". I really cannot see any logical sense in what she is saying. 'live with no teeth for another 3 months and then come back for new ones, because if I make these fit they won't fit very well in 3 months time when you are getting new teeth anyway'...
So that's where I'm at. At such a young age I have been going though roughly 4 years of anxiety and depression, to suffer 5 months with no teeth at all only able to eat things I can swallow as they are, and I finally have an appointment at the end of February where I am to go and get a permanent set of dentures. No doubt these will be just as poor quality as the temporary ones I received at the beginning of the year. I will try to get some pictures uploaded somewhere so that I can show you the state of this crap.
Anyway sorry for melting your eyeballs. I don't really know why i'm posting this, if you want to offer advice then be my guest but I don't think there's a lot I really can do. Thanks for reading though, hopefully gave you a couple laughs.
After a few months later (now with semi-stable living arrangements) and my teeth started breaking off, often while eating something like a sandwich (bite, chew, swallow, "wait a minute, there wasn't a gap there a moment ago!"). So I started looking for a dentist, which proved more difficult than it seems. NHS Choices were no help, apparently they have a go at dentists who are supposed to be taking on NHS patients but aren't, only apparently nobody at NHS Choices knows how to get through to the department that deals with that.
Anyway, flash forward a few years of waiting, losing more teeth, agonising pain and endless phone calls. At the start of this year I was finally put in tough with a dentist who apparently are really good, and they seemed to live up to this reputations at first. I initially went in for a checkup, and left that day with a full plan for treatment. I had an appointment to have impressions made for dentures, and I was being referred to hospital to have 21 teeth removed under GA (which is what I wanted). So I go and get my impressions made, a week later receive my dentures, and I was anxiously awaiting my hospital appointment when I receive a letter from a different Dental Surgery.
The letter confused me, because it was basically inviting me for a pre-operation consultancy, so they can decide how they are going to remove my teeth. And they certainly were NOT a hospital. So I phone them up to politely enquire as to what the hell was going on. Apparently I had been referred to them to have 21 teeth removed, 2 or 3 teeth at a time, and they were by no means allowed to use GA and would instead be opting for a local. When I explained that I had agreed to have all my teeth removed in one go I was immediately asked if I was sure, and told that if I wanted them all removed at once that I would probably want it done in hospital under GA. I mean I wasn't sure when I specifically asked the dentist for "hospital" and "GA", but i'm glad she asked because otherwise I never would have been sure. But it's not her fault, and I wasn't really in a great mood so I just asked her to refer me to hospital instead and ended the phone call on good terms.
Now onto the fun with the hospital. I went to a consultation at the hospital, where I underwent some sort of medical assessment and was then volunteered to feed Dracula. I was told that I was healthy, and that they were happy to give me GA for the first time and rip these nubs-of-teeth out
happy days. Or not. 4 times my surgery was cancelled and rearranged for a couple of months later. 4 TIMES!!! But at least they didn't book me in for toe-extraction instead of teeth, right? The day of the surgery was horrible, I couldn't have a cup of tea when I woke up, and I could only get a lift in 2 hours prior to surgery so I was sat around panicking for ages. But actually it wasn't all that bad. I was shown into a little cubical to await surgery. Doctors, nurses, surgeons, and even the drug-guy (that was blatantly a heavy toker who told me he would give me all the best stuff and promised not to accidentally put me in a coma) all came in to see me to talk me through what to expect and to assure me that everything was going to be fine. Then I got whisked off on a wheelchair, into a really cold room with the drug-guy and a medical student. I got into bed and began having a little laugh with the people around me to try and calm my nerves, but once he started injecting me with moonshine I was gone. Somehow I managed to take my socks off though, really don't remember that one.
Coming round was an interesting experience. I was drifting in and out for a while, but didn't feel groggy or uneasy. Just like really drunk without the dizziness or nausea. Nurses were very kind, and my face was super numb due to how much local they gave me while I was under (numbness didn't wear off for a good 12 hours). In all a pretty pleasant experience really, and I don't care what anyone says about NHS Hospital staff every one of the people that I met/spoke to there was brilliant and couldn't do enough for me.
So it seems like I had a pretty good experience. Well we aren't out of the woods yet, because that was about a month ago now. Since then ALL the swelling has gone, my gums are a little tender but that's to be expected because i've been keeping everything away from them since surgery, and I have regained the majority of functionality in my jaw (it feels a little sore when closing, i'm guessing this is because I now have to teeth and my jaw isn't meant to close that much). Only problem is this beautiful 'well made' dentures, do not fit at all. In fact the teeth themselves look amazing, but that is the full extent of the quality of these dentures.
Remember my saying I lost a front tooth when I was 16? Well the impression they made must have shown them that the bone-structure where that tooth attached may have receded (10 years on what more can you expect?) as they have put a little ridge where that tooth would be. This is fine, but the geniuses they are thought "if that one has receded that much in 10 years, the other one must recede twice as much in 4 weeks" as the ridge on the opposing tooth sticks out twice as much. As far as I can tell this ridge is what is stopping my upper denture from fitting. No worries, they can be adjusted. On to the bottoms.
Well this is where I start feeling angry. The mistake on the upper is a little amusing, but this is ridiculous. No "let's be clever here" ridges like the top, more like "let's be complete spanners and not trim this one up properly". Excess acrylic and jagged edges make wearing this not only impossible, but also makes attempts to where it painful (the first time I tried to bite down to force them into position and the result was 30 minutes of washing blood out of my mouth, this was prior to me noticing how poor the quality was).
Back to the dentist I go. But the results have confused me and everyone i've spoken to about it. I explained about the cancelled appointments, and that i'd finally had my teeth removed (5 weeks prior to the appointment), that all the swelling had gone down, the stitches were dissolving, but that the dentures are very poor quality and don't fit. I explained about the edges, excess, and ridge, but before even inspecting the dentures she tries cramming the top (JUST THE TOP) into my mouth. Hearing my yelps expressing extreme pain she pulls out the denture, and says "yeeeeees, well it is still very swollen, the stitches are starting to become loose which is a sign that the swelling is starting to go away, when are you due to have them taken out?", to which I reiterate that they are dissolving, and are almost all gone. She says "ok", and wonders back to her desk to look at paperwork (I guess). At this point she still hasn't actually LOOKED at the dentures, or even handled the lower one.
Her final remarks left me baffled, confused, and still without a functional set of teeth. She said "well, I am not going to reshape your temporary dentures, because in a couple of months when the swelling has gone they will become lose and won't fit properly. however your mouth is healing really well, so I am happy for you to come back in a couple of months and have impressions made for your new permanent dentures". I really cannot see any logical sense in what she is saying. 'live with no teeth for another 3 months and then come back for new ones, because if I make these fit they won't fit very well in 3 months time when you are getting new teeth anyway'...
So that's where I'm at. At such a young age I have been going though roughly 4 years of anxiety and depression, to suffer 5 months with no teeth at all only able to eat things I can swallow as they are, and I finally have an appointment at the end of February where I am to go and get a permanent set of dentures. No doubt these will be just as poor quality as the temporary ones I received at the beginning of the year. I will try to get some pictures uploaded somewhere so that I can show you the state of this crap.
Anyway sorry for melting your eyeballs. I don't really know why i'm posting this, if you want to offer advice then be my guest but I don't think there's a lot I really can do. Thanks for reading though, hopefully gave you a couple laughs.
