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7 Extractions in two weeks - REALLY nervous

K

KellyDares

Junior member
Joined
Mar 31, 2017
Messages
1
I've been lurking around this forum for about a year now, and it helped me tremendously in getting myself to the dentist.

I have awful anxiety about the dentist and pretty much burst into tears just thinking about going, but I was able to find someone who is incredibly caring and gentle and works around my anxiety.

That being said, after about 10 years of not going to the dentist and not doing a great job of taking care of my teeth in the meantime, I have to have 7 teeth extracted. All but one are back teeth. I am doing IV sedation for the procedure, and the oral surgeon prescribed Valium for the night before. I have had individual teeth extracted before (two in addition to wisdom teeth), but that felt so much easier to deal with.

I am really stressed/nervous about the following:

The one that isn't in the back is a canine and, although I have a small mouth and don't show many teeth when I'm talking, I'm really nervous about what that will look like. My dentist advised against immediate dentures because I have sensory issues and I won't be able to take them out/get used to them like I will need to, so I have to wait until everything heals for the partials to be fitted and fill in the gaps.

I've told people I have to have "a couple teeth extracted" because they don't need to know my business, but are they going to be able to tell??

How will I eat without much in the way of chewing teeth before I get the partials? After?

I've been having dreams that the dentist takes the wrong teeth and I'm left with gaps in the front.

What is healing going to look like? Am I going to have a mouth full of blood?

Any advice, calming juju, etc would be greatly appreciated.
 
Something you could definitely ask is whether you could have the canine glued to buddy teeth whilst you wait for the partial.
I had to have a front tooth removed last year as an emergency but they glued it to it's buddy teeth - admittedly it was only for a couple of weeks but was rock solid and would have lasted longer if needed. My gum above then healed just above the glued tooth and I could feel but not see a little gap forming where the gum was healing.

Do you mind me asking what the sensory issues you have are? I'm thinking that if you have issues then sooner or later you will need to have the denture and get used to it so for looking normal I would be pressing to get immediates and deal with it - but without knowing your issues that really may not be the way to go.
To be honest when I got my partial the first few months were much much easier than I imagined in terms of getting used to it. I'm finding things a lot more difficult now but I am getting a reline next month which I hope will make them a much better fit again.

As for eating it sounds like you might need to get prepared for soups and soft foods (soft foods which don't need much chewing and can be eaten with a knife and fork - I never realised before how amazing a knife and fork can be to really help with eating anything - but especially so with a denture) for a while - I'm assuming they're talking a wait of about 3 months to get your partial once your gums have healed a bit - but this would be the case for a while even if you did get immediate dentures as it is fairly uncomfy attempting to chew
 
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