Front tooth removal and partial denture...terrified of it all

[RustyRebecca]

Here I am again This dental journey is so ugh.
Due to my canines being removed as a kid (don't ask) its caused loads of problems. To cut a long dental story short, now I am at the stage whereby the dentist is to remove my front bad tooth (in a couple of weeks) and I will be having a partial acrylic denture put immediately in. All impressions have been done. A root canal on this tooth was too risky and lots of work. So this is all I am left with. Can't have a bridge as not sufficient supporting teeth.
And I am terrified. Because I had a partial acrylic denture for my canines before and I could never wear/couldn't get used to it/couldn't eat with it. So I have been without it for years. And lived without my canines.
This partial denture looks bigger than the one I had before too. It has 5 teeth on it. The front one, the canines, and two smaller ones further back (one is already gone, the other only has a root basically left, so she is removing that too with the front one).
I asked for a flexi denture but apparently the technician won't create that because he said it breaks too easily.
I am terrified of the procedure of having the front tooth and side tooth out and then the denture put in. That will create heaps of anxiety from the numbing to the whole process.
And then the denture...once this tooth is gone, it is gone. If I can't get used to this denture, I am screwed. I will never smile again because it is my front tooth. The last one I literally panicked with as I felt I couldn't get it out if needed to when it was in. And when it was in, it was horrible, so uncomfortable. It felt like an alien in my mouth. Couldn't even drink a cup of tea comfortably! It felt like it was covering my palate and yet when out it looked small! But my mouth is small.
I don't get why it has to be like this in this day and age. Why can't I just have the front tooth out and a tooth clipped in that doesn't cover the palate at all? Why does it have to be so invasive and foreign?
If it was only a plate with the front tooth on it (and forget the rest) would it be a lot smaller? My dentist didnt seem to think it would make much difference and it would be better for my mouth to have all my teeth, to hold in place, etc.
Does anyone have any thoughts please?

 

[Gordon]

Sorry if I miss something.
1) A clipped in tooth has been done before. It's extremely dangerous, if it falls off it can go down your airway and the clips mean it sticks there. Not good at all. They don't get used these days for that reason
2) It wouldn't be much smaller. It needs to be big enough to spread out the load on the supporting tissues so as not to cause trauma from overloading them.
3) Once you've had the teeth out for a few months, then the denture can be upgraded to a better one, such as a cobalt chrome skeleton design which is much thinner and leaves more of your mouth uncovered.

 

[RustyRebecca]

Hi Gordon
Thank you for answering. I wasn't exactly being serious about a clip in tooth (I made that up) just that with today's technology and all...
Why can't it be a flexible denture now as opposed to later? I have seen plenty of dentists saying how good they are. Why the few months? Would it not be better to have a flexi denture with just one tooth (front one) that I can wear than a denture that is plastic with 5 teeth that covers my palate that I can't wear?
Thank you

 

[Gordon]

The gums will shrink and change over the next few months following the extractions, your expensive denture will no longer fit you and they can't be relined, so you'd need to bin it and make a new one