Yesterday I had 4 top front teeth extracted and partial denture...

[Poppy36]

and it looks great. I have the pretty smile I wanted. However, I feel like I have a great big lump of plastic in my mouth and am just hoping someone can tell me that you do get used to it.

Also, I took it out to clean today as advised after 24 hours. There is no way in a million years I want my husband to see me without it, and I don't want to take it out at night. I've read all sorts of differing opinions as to whether I should or not...maybe I should put this in the dentistry questions area also.

Just, any positive experiences? Thanks.

 

[ami]

Sorry I have no experience but I just wanted to say well done. I really want my front teeth out so I can smile

 

[londonscot]

Hi Poppy

Congratulations first of all on your new teeth!

I know it is not exactly the same but last November I had two fixed bridges applied to my upper jaw. Initially I must say I was a little disappointed...they looked great and natural but they didn't feel part of me. Biting was distinctly odd at first and my speech patterns were affected slightly.

Over the period since they have gradually settled down and I no longer think of them as 'false' every time I bite and words with s's no longer cause me panic!. Can't really help re the removal thing as these are fixed but I can't imagine hubby's reaction would be as bad as you might think. Much worse things happen at sea! Has he not noticed you have suddenly grown nice new teeth???

 

[LadyDi4476]

How do dentures work? I mean how do they stay on gums? Will they stay on gums that had one been infected?

I'm sure it must feel very weird but it has to be worth it to have a brand new smile

 

[olivacs]

Hi Poppy36:
I know how you feel. It took me awhile to get used to it all myself and am still getting used to it. I still will not let my husband see me without it in my mouth. I do leave mine out at night and do it as the very last thing before bed.
Congrats on making it this far!!!

 

[brewer734]

hey
Ok so i dont know what false teeth feel like but im going to tell you about my best friend. She has a problem getting numb and due to bad experiences left her teeth for so long she had to have them all out under general anaesthetic. She was really looking forwards to being able to smile again but she phoned me up in a right state crying and saying she hated how they felt and she couldn't talk or eat properley she was really really upset. I didnt know how to help her she was distraught and especially after taking them out to clean them for the first time but I can tell you this after the first 2 weeks she really did start to get used to them and now shes fine about them she says its just such a shock to have to get used to plastic in yr mouth where once yr teeth were but she's thrilled with her smile now and she looks great you'd never know she sleps in hers and never takes them out in front of anyone ever but thats fine its up to you totally no matter what anyone says you will get used to them but honestly it just takes time and you've already been so brave.
Let yourself get used to them gradually and keep smiling in the mirror to remind yrself how worth it yr new teeth are.
hope you feel much better with them soon
Emma

 

[Poppy36]

thanks for all the replies. Ami, do it only as a very last resort it's not easy and it's been an extremely emotional and stressful time...even though I badly wanted it before I didn't realise how difficult it would be. It feels like a lump of plastic in my mouth and I'm so paranoid people will notice the join and that they arent real.

londonscot lol yes, he did notice. I'd murmured some nonsense about crowns then gone off and had it done. Then the other night had a couple of wines and a crying fit and confessed all. He has been wonderfully supportive and doesn't see it as such a big deal. Says lots of his sporting heroes have likely knocked out loads of teeth just you don't know about it and that its completely ok. My speech is almost back to normal after 6 days but I can't bite down on them, which is ok I guess i couldn't bite down on my natural ones either it hurt too much! Maybe that will come with time.

LadyDi I have a plate which sits in the roof of my mouth, it goes up over my front gum and covers half my palate behind. It's not attached to anything but it fits so snugly between my natural teeth it won't fall out and requires quite a bit of effort to get it to come out. It does however move slightly but as soon as I'm properly healed I will be glueing the damn thing down with polygrip.

Olivacs, thank you. It's one hell of a journey huh. I read somewhere that a partial denture should eventually just feel like a part of yourself, so hopefully that will happen to us in time and we will forget we are even wearing them.

thanks Emma it is so good to hear others have 'survived'. I'm glad your friend got through it and that she is ok. What a trauma for her.

My front 4 teeth were so ugly, they'd come loose, had dropped, spread apart and just looked horrible. One had a hole in the back and I got a nasty infection which didn't completely clear up. So now they're gone, the infection is gone, my appearance looks so much better, even with my mouth closed as my top lip has proper support now. Looks younger and I can wear lipgloss again.

It all sounds so positive but I've just been so upset, feeling like I've failed, I should not have let it get so bad, why didn't I realise sooner and fix it earlier and maybe it wouldn't have come to this...what if what if what if. It's been 6 days now and I should be happy but I just feel miserable.

 

[olanda]

Hi Poppy (& also Olivacs)! I've not really commented on your posts before but I've read them and think you've both been so brave! I'm sure you look great with your new smiles!
I'm in my thirties too (just, I'm 31!) and am at the beginning of needing to have quite a bit of work done... I'm dreading it - like really dreading it with cold sweats, tears, the inability to sleep and I keep on postponing appointments. Right now it feels like my whole life's on hold over my teeth.
One thing I'm wondering is if either of you considered the implant route? I'm so undecided about whether or not to have this done and I wonder if you've researched this and know anything about it?
Poppy, I also keep thinking 'what if...?' about my teeth but a friend of mine recently said that all the energy you're using thinking 'what if' could be put to better use by thinking 'what now?' - trying not to spend time regretting the past but learning from it, deciding you'll never make that mistake again (and you won't sit by and watch others make it either) and then working on how to best move on as a stronger person. I guess it's about trying to use your energy in a positive way that helps you rather than a negative way that hurts you - as she said 'what ifs...' can never come true and it's just a way of beating yourself up about the past when you should be being kind to yourself in this moment and thinking positively about the future. Great advice from a wise lady!! Can't say I've mastered it yet but I'm trying!!

 

[Poppy36]

Hi Olanda My dentist doesn't offer implants and I assume I wouldn't be a good candidate for them due to my bone loss. Also right now there is no way I could afford it. But, if I could afford it and it was possible I would definitely want implants. As soon as I have some money in the bank I will seriously think about consulting an implant dentist just to see if anything could be done. Try not to put off your appointments any more and if I can help from my experiences at all then I would be happy to, feel free to pm me if you want.

Your friend has some very good advice there. I've just read it twice and will probably come back and read it a few more times too. I'm having an obsessing over my teeth kind of a day.

 

[londonscot]

Hi Poppy

First of all you must think about the positive thing you have done and not the things you haven't. You can't change history - if you could I would roll the clock back the 35 years I didn't go to a dentist and save myself a fortune!! But I can't so I have to deal with the position I am in, as you and most others here had to.

You have taken decisive action over your problem. You could have left it, and a year down the line it would just be a bigger problem. So you have done the correct thing. OK it doesn't feel quite right yet but I am betting with the passage of a short period of time it will feel a lot better. That has cetainly been my experience with my bridges, which are essentially most of my upper teeth.

So keep your chin up, lots of people in here know and can sympathise totally with what you are going through. And as your husband says, more people than you might think have artificial teeth of various sorts. Few people are perfect teeth wise any more than we are all slim and attractive. It is just easier (if not necessarily cheap!) to cover up or replace a dodgy tooth or teeth than a fat belly.

For every piece of dental work there is a reason, preventable or otherwise. But that reason is ALWAYS in the past....the future is ahead, it starts right now, and the great news is that we have some control over it.

 

[olivacs]

Wow I love all the great words of encouragement!
What Poppy writes is exactly how I feel. I always fall back to the "what ifs". I beat myself up over this as well although my new smile is so much better than what I had. Sometimes I wonder how could I have enve lived with such UGLY teeth. They were yellow and caked with tartar and the gums were pulling away...and yet I never minded. Now, I had those 6 extracted and immediate partial and the teeth are pretty and clean but yet they are not my own.

I have recently read some books and spoke with a counselor once over the feelings I am having. They consume my life.

Poppy, hopefully what I am about to type will help you.
It was explained that in the beginning we learn our teeth need to come out, so we want to just get it done and have no time to think about it or worry. We just want it done!
Next, after its done we try to get used to things and as things settle we then begin to "mourn" so to speak. It was described as mouning a loss. We have lost a part of us that we can't get back so we become sad, depressed, and isolate ourselves. We experience anxiety, loss of sleep, loss of everything just as if we had lost a parent, spouse, or friend.
Our bodies then go thru the grieving process and once we have experienced all of that, we begin to heal. The grieving process can be short lived or last a long time. Our minds and bodies make that decision.

Healing will be great when we get there. That's when our new teeth are accepted by us and we begin to move on. We no longer struggle with the anxiety of being different and losing ourselves. We accept our loss and move on.

Right now I think I am in the grieving/mourning process but am slowly beginning to switch to the healing phase. I met with a friend who I never knew had all of her teeth extracted just about 9 months ago and has full dentures. I never would have known because I could not tell. She inspired me. She is 25 years old and is full of life and happy to show off her new teeth. She sat me down, talked with me, and put things into perspective a bit.


As for implants, my plan is to get them. I need the $$ first. From what I understand, just about anyone is a candidate for implants however if there is a lot of bone loss, it will require bone grafting prior to the implants. Oh how I would love to get them. It sure beats having to remove this god awful plastic thing in my mouth everyday!!!

Sorry this was so long but just wanted to get out what I felt.

Best wishes and hugs to you all

 

[Poppy36]

Hi Olivacs you have some good advice there. i guess it is an emotional healing process as well as a physical one. I was totally just focussed on my smile looking nice, then when it was done I started to think about everything else. I'm sorry you're feeling so badly about it all, but I do understand exactly what you're going through. Every time I've been feeling negative about myself because of it I've been repeating 'well, I messed up, but at least now I have done everything I can to put it right and should feel proud of that'. Maybe if I say it often enough to myself it will sink in.

the physical side of it is much better now a week after, no sore patches and speech has returned to normal. Eating still feels a bit weird but it is improving. I clean the denture in the morning, stick it down with fixodent (which I think is wonderful because I hated the feeling of the plate moving in my mouth) and then try to forget about it til it's time to repeat the process before bed. I get very tense about that. Hate taking it out...it doesn't hurt or anything but it's just the fact that it comes out if that makes any sense.

Olivacs I really admire you. You've come so far and faced your fears and helped numerous others in the process, including me.

 

[olivacs]

Thanks for the kind words Poppy36....

I feel the EXACT same about removing it. I hate to do it so much. When its in I feel fine but the thought of having to remove it makes me anxious and nervous. I try to hurry up and just do it and not look at myself without it or in bright lights.
Hopefully one day soon we can get used to it and just deal with it like every other thing in life.

You are a real trooper!!!! We will get thru this..

 

[fatcat]

You guys are both troopers! I only have to have 2 out (not visible) and have found that hard enough, you are both so brave! I don't know how you feel but can imagine that I would feel similar. I really hope you both get used to your new teeth soon!

 

[olivacs]

Thanks Fatcat! It is so wonderful to get nice comments from others on this board. Just when you feel like garbage and a failure someone on this board always comes along and helps out.
Congrats to you for making it thru your two teeth out. No matter how many teeth are removed its still a piece of us that goes but I guess we just need to move on.
Thanks again for your kind words

 

[fatcat]

I know its nice to have support from people who understand. You are far from a failure though! You are a big success story on here!
Re my teeth, only had one out so far....next one in 6 weeks.
I admit I have been a bit teary about it and was quite surprised at how it affected me....the posts on this thread have been a help. You are right it is kinda like grieving.

 

[Poppy36]

Just a quick update from me....I never thought I'd write this but things are getting better. Feeling much more confident now, and speaking and eating feels fine again. Not 100% there yet but can definitely see the light at the end of the tunnel

 

[olivacs]

So glad to hear it!!
I think the worst of it all is really just having to remove the darn thing and clean it. I hate to see myself without it. Once its in I am fine!!

 

[franwalsh]

and it looks great. I have the pretty smile I wanted. However, I feel like I have a great big lump of plastic in my mouth and am just hoping someone can tell me that you do get used to it.

Also, I took it out to clean today as advised after 24 hours. There is no way in a million years I want my husband to see me without it, and I don't want to take it out at night. I've read all sorts of differing opinions as to whether I should or not...maybe I should put this in the dentistry questions area also.

Just, any positive experiences? Thanks.

Hi there I know this is an old post but I'm wondering if you could just let me have some answers to my questions.

I have had done exactly what you had done it will be 2 weeks on Tuesday, I just wondered how long did it take you to get used to the feeling of the plate in your mouth, how long before you could actually bite into food etc, and does your mouth ever feel normal. I keep playing with it with my tongue, did you do this?

If you could give me any tips with how to proceed I would be very grateful.

Thank you

Regards

Fran

 

[45andAfraid]

Really curious too....

Also, so my understanding is that you don't have a full mouth dentures? I don't quite follow....

I'm afraid of full mouth ones.... ones that completely cover the roof of my mouth. I don't wanna gag....