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Upcoming major dental work, glad and scared to death at the same time

J

Jake A

Junior member
Joined
Mar 6, 2014
Messages
2
Hi everyone,

Today I have an appointment with the dentist to start the long journey to not be ashamed to smile at a good joke or laugh without making sure I don't open my mouth far enough to show my biggest hatred about myself.

Over the years my teeth have fallen into a bad state and it is through no fault but my own. Neglect is the main reason this happened and now I am about to pay the price for it. I hate the fact that I made poor decisions about my teeth for this long and now I am looking at having a full upper extraction at one shot, and most of the lowers done also. They will be replaced by a full upper denture and a partial lower from what I have gathered from dentists in the past.

I have decided to have all extraction needed done at the same shot because of an upcoming week long closure at work ( spring break week off ) so that I can recover from the worst of it without missing too much time from work.

Most of my worries are vanity (stupid, I know) because pain can be managed by medicine. I have no clue how long the gums need to heal before I can start wearing the denture. One dentist did mention a temporary denture at one meeting we had, but I did not find out more than that about it.

I get bouts of anxiety over this whole thing, but I know it has to be done. There is no way it can be worse than an infected tooth in the pain department ( WORST PAIN I have ever had ). I just hope there is something that can be done after the initial extraction that will allow me to look "normal" while the gums finish the healing process.

All that being said, I just want to smile at my wife and kids without that whole "don't smile too much and show off that train wreck in your mouth" feeling that I always get.
 
Well done on making the appointment! I hope everything goes well for you!
 
Well done. You are doing the right thing in the direction of better dental health, improving your general health and your life quality.

One dentist did mention a temporary denture at one meeting we had, but I did not find out more than that about it.
A temporary denture is a denture the patient receives right after the extractions. It is beneficial for the patient because it allows not only to smile and relatively well chew food, but also because it protects the wounded tissue (specially important for smokers). It is temporary because the gums changes its form and shape during the healing period (about 6 weeks long) and the change in its form is so big that the first dentures (the temporary) don't feet well. In some cases the temporary denture can be adapted and sit pretty well as a permanent one, but the more teeth are extracted the bigger the morphological change the gum is going through and the less chances the temporary denture sits well.

all the best
 
Well done jake , I wish you all the best on your journey to a new & happier you :)
 
Thanks for the information and support. The appointment went well except I think my dentist has exactly ZERO compassion at all. It actually got to the point that I had to tell him I came for options to fix existing problems, not endless lectures that I had given myself over the years already. After that I think he got the point and we moved on to options.

The options were not as bad as I had thought!

My bottom teeth situation is that both of the bottom wisdom teeth are broken off at the gum line and will need the root tips removed removed. The same situation about the lower molar in front of the wisdom tooth, left side. Other than that, all that is needed will be a crown on one tooth on the lower right side and a couple of fillings. He did recommend that I see a periodontist for a deep cleaning on the lowers so that he can begin the repair he needs to do down there.

The uppers are all ( except 1 ) a lost cause basically and he said to see an oral surgeon and have them removed at one time so that we can place a temp denture and let the healing begin on the uppers and get the final denture made when it heals and the bone shrinks.

I went ahead and made the appointment for the crown, root tip removal on one side, and a couple of fillings that he wants to do while in there already for this Thursday. I am already nervous, but I can't wait to be able to smile again and not worry about people looking at my teeth.
 
I hope all goes well with your next one! I think you are being very brave. Keep us updated. I am however sorry it go to the point where you had to tell him what you said. But just remember you are taking a very big step.
 
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