plasticmouth
09-15-2005, 02:08 PM
Hi everyone, I'm new here and just thought I would let everyone know about my experience with full dentures, and to let you know that in the end ( in my own experience ) that dentures really are great - after time and persistance !. Anyways...into it --> ....
Well it all started for me around the age of 28 when my teeth were getting really bad , i had a few half teeth left and mainlly stumps flat with the gumline or below it / my teeth were really bad - rotten to the core - i did brush them, but apparentlly not enough and the bourbon got the better of them, and i did hate dentists too - which the last visit before hand was over 20 years ago ! . Anyway you got a rough idea how bad they were, basically they couldnt get much worse, they were to the point where i could hardly eat/chew anything, had absisses and headaches all the time, i couldnt sleep due to pain, and was really sick too ( poision in my body from my teeth ) - so i decided it was time to do something about it before i droped dead ...lol ..
This next part i couldnt believe, i spent nearlly 8 months - yes a whole 8 months trying to find a dentist that would extract my teeth ! - nearlly every dentist i saw scewed their face up in horror and said "what do you want me to do ?" - that really drops your confidence in someone when u are approached like that , so to every dentist i said "pull them all out", the response i got was " oh , thats way to complicated for me , you better see another dentist ! ". Anyway all that was a horror in itself , i must have gone to about 30 something dentists before i found one with a happy confident welcome and looked at my teeth and said " yep , no problems , we can do that for you within the week" . My dentist recomended i be knocked out ( put under ) while getting the 32 teeth removed , i had the a full 24 broken off teeth/stumps + 4 half broken teeth + the 4 wisdom teeth cracked and rotten too etc etc . Before he extracted my teeth we discussed my options but full removal was about it anyway - which suited me because i didnt want to be having to visit dentists ever again :) . Anyway after 2 hrs i woke in no pain but totally out of it :) .. lol .. my bleeding was totally minimal , i didnt need any gorse packed in the holes where my teeth were , by the time i had woke any bleeding had stoped anyway. Felt so strange to have no teeth at first but gee it felt good too to have no tooth pains ! . For the next 3 months i had no teeth while the holes were fully healing over, and was living off soup , mashed potatoe with gravy and cheeseburgers from mc'donalds ( i usually hate mc'donalds but the cheeseburgers are soft and edible with no teeth - if u get a fresh 1 ! ..lol ) :) . NEXT - It was time for a denture fitting :eek: . By that 3 months later my gums had healed pretty good , allthough they were still a little soft , i went to a denture clinic after being told of the better fit i would get - getting it done at the actual denture clinic instead of the dentist sorting it all out . I got all the mould stuff done etc etc and a week later i had my first set of dentures - OMG - this is where life got hard for a while---->> I tried them on in the clinic and they fitted perfect allthough i was gaging like a madman, when i got home i spent the rest of the day gaging and eyes watering , i tried to eat something soft first up and my bottom dentures became part of the meal ..lol .. ( allthough it wasnt funny back then - it was very frustrating ! ) . After about 3 days of having no success with them and being very very frustrated i ripped them out and chucked them across the living room ( it was making me very depressed ) - i expected soon as i had these new plastic teeth all would be good and well , how wrong i was ! - besides all the above - having a full upper and lower denture in your mouth when your not used to it is like having something the size of a tennis ball in your mouth, it really feels like TOO MUCH at first and feels like there is no room for food or your toung in your mouth. So after that 3 days i pulled them out and tried just the bottom dentures , hey this wasnt too bad ! - i think i ended up wearing just my bottom dentures for nearlly the next 6 months - they enabled me to chew alot better and also filled my face out a bit so i didnt look like a shrunken potatoe head ..lol . during that 6 months wearing the bottom dentures i accidentlly sneazed them out twice and broke them in half when hitting the floor and had to superglue them back together ..lmao .. but it worked ! - and i did a good job too so the denture clinic guy said ..lol .. anyway that 6 months wearing just the bottom dentures enabled me to learn to chew with bottom dentures and learn to use like the inside cheek muscles of your mouth to keep them down while chewing, after that 6 months my bottom dentures felt natural too ! - they felt like real teeth , i was so used to them that i didnt notice they were there most the time , they just felt like real teeth - and with the chewing part of things - it sounds hard but that too becomes natural after a while so in the end i was really happy with my bottom dentures. During that 6 months i also had alot of small bone fragments coming out of the old tooth holes and sides of my gums , my top gum shrank dramatically in this time and that 6 months later my top denture did'nt fit at all. I went back to the clinic for a reline where he filled my top denture with a white'ish semi-permanent filler and refitted it , and he also repaired my superglue work to my bottom denture ( remelted it and rejoined the pieces ) - i was happy with the bottom denture , it still fitted and i didtn want the bottom relined/refitted. so again , after returning home i just couldnt handle the top denture again ! - it didnt feel as bad because now it felt like i only had a top denture ( becuse the bottom denture felt natural by this time ) - so i had no mouthfull of tennisball effect - but i was still gagging like crazy , and i still couldnt eat propperlly with the 2 dentures , and besides that i wasnt fully happy with the fit of the top denture after 2 days, so i ripped the top dentures out again. another 6 months went past which during this time i tried the tope dentures a few times with no success , but now again my top gum had shrunk more but i had noticed it had hit its limit and fully healed so i though maybe i would go for a top reline again. This time he did a full new mould of my upper again and reused the teeth from my first denture in my new denture, i tried them when they were ready after a week , hey they fitted really nice and i was only gagging now and then , he said he moved the palate at the back of the plate foward more now the denture suctioned to my gums better now they were hard and healed , so i didnt need as much suction on the top part of the denture anymore. They looked and fitted great - although i have to admit the next 3 months they wer ein and out ( the top dentures ) as i was getting used to eating with them etc - I really did right from the start question myself if i had done the right thing , i really had some horror times with those dentures while getting used to them , but now a fe wyears down the track ( im now 31 ) , i love them better that my original teeth even when they were in good condition ! true . They now feel very natural , i dont gag on them at all anymore , if anything - it actually feels really wierd these days when i remove them , i have gotten so used to them they are like my real teeth , they feel real , i have no problems anymore eating ANYTHING - i can now chew into pork crackling thats hard as bricks without a problem :) - All the above was just a tadd of what i went through , but gives u a good idea - but i would have to say to anyone considering dentures the following ...
Dont expect miricles straight away , it takes a long time for your gums to fully heal and be able to handle a hard surface like a denture without any pain ( mainlly the bottom denture ), dont expect to be able to chew propperlly straight away , its almost like having to learn to eat/chew all over again , but with persistance it becomes natural in the end ;) . On a few occasions during the first year or so i really regretted getting my teeth pulled because i couldnt eat anything of any solidity anymore, i went through a bad bout of depression during that time because of my teeth , but in the end with time and persistance it really paid off ... lol , i gotta laugh really nowerdays - back then i though that it - i've ruined my life - what have i done ..lol , but now i couldnt be happier and never look back , i just wish i had done it sooner ..lol , also i havent had 1 person pick that they are false teeth ! - i get really nice comments all the time , people saying " :eek: , OH , What nice teeth u have " , lol , and i'm like " oh ty very much :cool: " - not telling them they are false ! ....
Anyways , if you are having problems with your dentures and need some support , dont hesitate to ask me any questions about them , i'de be glad to help :) . As far as im concerned these days my teeth are Plastic Fantastics ..lol
Well it all started for me around the age of 28 when my teeth were getting really bad , i had a few half teeth left and mainlly stumps flat with the gumline or below it / my teeth were really bad - rotten to the core - i did brush them, but apparentlly not enough and the bourbon got the better of them, and i did hate dentists too - which the last visit before hand was over 20 years ago ! . Anyway you got a rough idea how bad they were, basically they couldnt get much worse, they were to the point where i could hardly eat/chew anything, had absisses and headaches all the time, i couldnt sleep due to pain, and was really sick too ( poision in my body from my teeth ) - so i decided it was time to do something about it before i droped dead ...lol ..
This next part i couldnt believe, i spent nearlly 8 months - yes a whole 8 months trying to find a dentist that would extract my teeth ! - nearlly every dentist i saw scewed their face up in horror and said "what do you want me to do ?" - that really drops your confidence in someone when u are approached like that , so to every dentist i said "pull them all out", the response i got was " oh , thats way to complicated for me , you better see another dentist ! ". Anyway all that was a horror in itself , i must have gone to about 30 something dentists before i found one with a happy confident welcome and looked at my teeth and said " yep , no problems , we can do that for you within the week" . My dentist recomended i be knocked out ( put under ) while getting the 32 teeth removed , i had the a full 24 broken off teeth/stumps + 4 half broken teeth + the 4 wisdom teeth cracked and rotten too etc etc . Before he extracted my teeth we discussed my options but full removal was about it anyway - which suited me because i didnt want to be having to visit dentists ever again :) . Anyway after 2 hrs i woke in no pain but totally out of it :) .. lol .. my bleeding was totally minimal , i didnt need any gorse packed in the holes where my teeth were , by the time i had woke any bleeding had stoped anyway. Felt so strange to have no teeth at first but gee it felt good too to have no tooth pains ! . For the next 3 months i had no teeth while the holes were fully healing over, and was living off soup , mashed potatoe with gravy and cheeseburgers from mc'donalds ( i usually hate mc'donalds but the cheeseburgers are soft and edible with no teeth - if u get a fresh 1 ! ..lol ) :) . NEXT - It was time for a denture fitting :eek: . By that 3 months later my gums had healed pretty good , allthough they were still a little soft , i went to a denture clinic after being told of the better fit i would get - getting it done at the actual denture clinic instead of the dentist sorting it all out . I got all the mould stuff done etc etc and a week later i had my first set of dentures - OMG - this is where life got hard for a while---->> I tried them on in the clinic and they fitted perfect allthough i was gaging like a madman, when i got home i spent the rest of the day gaging and eyes watering , i tried to eat something soft first up and my bottom dentures became part of the meal ..lol .. ( allthough it wasnt funny back then - it was very frustrating ! ) . After about 3 days of having no success with them and being very very frustrated i ripped them out and chucked them across the living room ( it was making me very depressed ) - i expected soon as i had these new plastic teeth all would be good and well , how wrong i was ! - besides all the above - having a full upper and lower denture in your mouth when your not used to it is like having something the size of a tennis ball in your mouth, it really feels like TOO MUCH at first and feels like there is no room for food or your toung in your mouth. So after that 3 days i pulled them out and tried just the bottom dentures , hey this wasnt too bad ! - i think i ended up wearing just my bottom dentures for nearlly the next 6 months - they enabled me to chew alot better and also filled my face out a bit so i didnt look like a shrunken potatoe head ..lol . during that 6 months wearing the bottom dentures i accidentlly sneazed them out twice and broke them in half when hitting the floor and had to superglue them back together ..lmao .. but it worked ! - and i did a good job too so the denture clinic guy said ..lol .. anyway that 6 months wearing just the bottom dentures enabled me to learn to chew with bottom dentures and learn to use like the inside cheek muscles of your mouth to keep them down while chewing, after that 6 months my bottom dentures felt natural too ! - they felt like real teeth , i was so used to them that i didnt notice they were there most the time , they just felt like real teeth - and with the chewing part of things - it sounds hard but that too becomes natural after a while so in the end i was really happy with my bottom dentures. During that 6 months i also had alot of small bone fragments coming out of the old tooth holes and sides of my gums , my top gum shrank dramatically in this time and that 6 months later my top denture did'nt fit at all. I went back to the clinic for a reline where he filled my top denture with a white'ish semi-permanent filler and refitted it , and he also repaired my superglue work to my bottom denture ( remelted it and rejoined the pieces ) - i was happy with the bottom denture , it still fitted and i didtn want the bottom relined/refitted. so again , after returning home i just couldnt handle the top denture again ! - it didnt feel as bad because now it felt like i only had a top denture ( becuse the bottom denture felt natural by this time ) - so i had no mouthfull of tennisball effect - but i was still gagging like crazy , and i still couldnt eat propperlly with the 2 dentures , and besides that i wasnt fully happy with the fit of the top denture after 2 days, so i ripped the top dentures out again. another 6 months went past which during this time i tried the tope dentures a few times with no success , but now again my top gum had shrunk more but i had noticed it had hit its limit and fully healed so i though maybe i would go for a top reline again. This time he did a full new mould of my upper again and reused the teeth from my first denture in my new denture, i tried them when they were ready after a week , hey they fitted really nice and i was only gagging now and then , he said he moved the palate at the back of the plate foward more now the denture suctioned to my gums better now they were hard and healed , so i didnt need as much suction on the top part of the denture anymore. They looked and fitted great - although i have to admit the next 3 months they wer ein and out ( the top dentures ) as i was getting used to eating with them etc - I really did right from the start question myself if i had done the right thing , i really had some horror times with those dentures while getting used to them , but now a fe wyears down the track ( im now 31 ) , i love them better that my original teeth even when they were in good condition ! true . They now feel very natural , i dont gag on them at all anymore , if anything - it actually feels really wierd these days when i remove them , i have gotten so used to them they are like my real teeth , they feel real , i have no problems anymore eating ANYTHING - i can now chew into pork crackling thats hard as bricks without a problem :) - All the above was just a tadd of what i went through , but gives u a good idea - but i would have to say to anyone considering dentures the following ...
Dont expect miricles straight away , it takes a long time for your gums to fully heal and be able to handle a hard surface like a denture without any pain ( mainlly the bottom denture ), dont expect to be able to chew propperlly straight away , its almost like having to learn to eat/chew all over again , but with persistance it becomes natural in the end ;) . On a few occasions during the first year or so i really regretted getting my teeth pulled because i couldnt eat anything of any solidity anymore, i went through a bad bout of depression during that time because of my teeth , but in the end with time and persistance it really paid off ... lol , i gotta laugh really nowerdays - back then i though that it - i've ruined my life - what have i done ..lol , but now i couldnt be happier and never look back , i just wish i had done it sooner ..lol , also i havent had 1 person pick that they are false teeth ! - i get really nice comments all the time , people saying " :eek: , OH , What nice teeth u have " , lol , and i'm like " oh ty very much :cool: " - not telling them they are false ! ....
Anyways , if you are having problems with your dentures and need some support , dont hesitate to ask me any questions about them , i'de be glad to help :) . As far as im concerned these days my teeth are Plastic Fantastics ..lol