OK, here goes, hello to all as this is my first time of writing . what do I do? I live in the UK and am 46 years old. I have never had good teeth, very crowded without ever having any out to give me any space and when I was young I never had a decent dentist that suggested a brace. Lots of fillings as I have a sweet tooth!! But say for the last 10 years or so I have had problems with gum disease. Not bad, but it was there and I have been always checked with the probe thing they use to check on how bad the pockets are. I upped my cleaning and flossing, and seemed to be keeping it fairly stable. But my home life is very stressful now having separated from my husband and having to look after my children alone, having to go out to work etc and totally losing all confidence in myself-I think maybe my system is low and since an infection in my gum a few months ago, my gum disease seems to have just got so much worse. All the pockets have deepened, 3 teeth are now loose(2 of them wisdom) and I have a constant horrid taste in my mouth. I asked my dentist if I could see a specialists so she referred me to one, and I went the other day. He said that my oral hygeine was obviously good, but unfortunately I was one of those unlucky people who are highly susceptible to gum disease, I have lost so much bone in parts that the teeth probably will just have to come out. I feel so depressed by this on top of all my other problems, this specialist now wants to do a root surface debridement twice and then an assessment which is going to cost me an absolute fortune. Then he says he will take a view as to which teeth can't be saved and if we can do anything cosmetically for the crowding ie brace, veneers etc. The thing is, I just feel that it is all for nothing. I HATE my teeth , they are yellow, crowded , filled and now are being wrecked by gumdisease, they are killing any self confidence I ever had as I never want to smile or talk to anyone anymore, and I will never want to meet another man as I am just so ashamed of my teeth. The thing is, is it worth it? I just feel like I want to have them all out(even though the thought of that is terrifying) and have straight white teeth and undiseased gums, it doesn't matter if they aren't natural, I just don't want to go through life battling this disease, which will affect my health and bring me down all the time, looking horrible, so what do I do? Pay a fortune for this specialist to do what he can, or say that I will just let them be and hopefully they will get so bad that they will have to come out and I can have some nice false teeth? It seems such a hopeless situation, I just want to get on with my life feeling happy in myself about what I look like, knowing that I have a healthy mouth with no disease and feeling confident-I don't want to save my teeth at all costs. Would any dentist agree to take out healthy teeth if they would be lost to gum disease eventually? Has anyone else had this situation and give me some support? Thanks .

[QUOTE=Rosie the 3rd;2964867]OK, here goes, hello to all as this is my first time of writing . what do I do? I live in the UK and am 46 years old. I have never had good teeth, very crowded without ever having any out to give me any space and when I was young I never had a decent dentist that suggested a brace. Lots of fillings as I have a sweet tooth!! But say for the last 10 years or so I have had problems with gum disease. Not bad, but it was there and I have been always checked with the probe thing they use to check on how bad the pockets are. I upped my cleaning and flossing, and seemed to be keeping it fairly stable. But my home life is very stressful now having separated from my husband and having to look after my children alone, having to go out to work etc and totally losing all confidence in myself-I think maybe my system is low and since an infection in my gum a few months ago, my gum disease seems to have just got so much worse. All the pockets have deepened, 3 teeth are now loose(2 of them wisdom) and I have a constant horrid taste in my mouth. I asked my dentist if I could see a specialists so she referred me to one, and I went the other day. He said that my oral hygeine was obviously good, but unfortunately I was one of those unlucky people who are highly susceptible to gum disease, I have lost so much bone in parts that the teeth probably will just have to come out. I feel so depressed by this on top of all my other problems, this specialist now wants to do a root surface debridement twice and then an assessment which is going to cost me an absolute fortune. Then he says he will take a view as to which teeth can't be saved and if we can do anything cosmetically for the crowding ie brace, veneers etc. The thing is, I just feel that it is all for nothing. I HATE my teeth , they are yellow, crowded , filled and now are being wrecked by gumdisease, they are killing any self confidence I ever had as I never want to smile or talk to anyone anymore, and I will never want to meet another man as I am just so ashamed of my teeth. The thing is, is it worth it? I just feel like I want to have them all out(even though the thought of that is terrifying) and have straight white teeth and undiseased gums, it doesn't matter if they aren't natural, I just don't want to go through life battling this disease, which will affect my health and bring me down all the time, looking horrible, so what do I do? Pay a fortune for this specialist to do what he can, or say that I will just let them be and hopefully they will get so bad that they will have to come out and I can have some nice false teeth? It seems such a hopeless situation, I just want to get on with my life feeling happy in myself about what I look like, knowing that I have a healthy mouth with no disease and feeling confident-I don't want to save my teeth at all costs. Would any dentist agree to take out healthy teeth if they would be lost to gum disease eventually? Has anyone else had this situation and give me some support? Thanks .[/QUOT

Hi Rosie,

Don't just give up. You have options, and remember, its YOUR mouth, so its abosolutely your decision on how you want to approach this....If the gum disease, continues, you'll eventually have to have dentures, right?...I recently made the decision of dnetures myself. I have the WORSE teeth in the world, wearing crowns that are almost as old as myself, 57, and has lost so many other teeth due to gum disease, syogrens syndrome etc. I decided to give myself, my mouth a clean bill of health, and have everything extracted, for denture wear. I'm first starting with the tops, then later on with the bottoms.....Just wanted to share my choices, I made....Vergie

Thank you Vergie. I think the thing is I haven't lost any teeth yet, in fact I have too many teeth having all my wisdom teeth aswell, but they look so awful and feel so awful and I know that the prognosis is so bad , I just feel for the sake of a decent life with high self esteem I would be better off without them. Do you know what I am getting at?

never, never give up. keep all your own if possible.

Yes, I'm sure you are right , but what worries me is that I may have to go through years and years of battling this thing, with my teeth looking progressively worse and losing them all in the end anyway. If you have deep pocketing around some teeth but not others will it eventually spread to all of them, or can it just be contained around certain teeth? If the healthy teeth I have could stay that way then I suppose it doesn't seem quite so hopeless..

Rosie, you have a lot going on in your life right now and you need to evaluate what will make the most sense for you in both the short and long term. Yes, retaining your natural teeth would be optimum but sometimes it is not always what will be best in this situation. Wearing dentures is not the end of the world.
You need to have a talk with the dentist who referred you to the specialist and see what they feel will be the best long term solution for you. Your current emotional state will make anything you do seem more difficult.
Facing dentures in your situation may offer a quick solution and allow you to get on with life but there are many implications that dentures create. You need to get all the facts and decide what is best for you and your children right now- do not hurry into this decision.
Ask lots of questions, write down your questions before you go in and refer to them often.

Do not be ashamed of yourself, as one person told you, your genetics are such that you are more susceptible to problems than someone else might be.

Good luck and feel free to ask us anything- I am 42 and wear full dentures.

Thank you, that is such a helpful answer. It really is so comforting to talk to other people who understand, I think bad teeth and gums are such a taboo subject that you don't like to discuss it with people. Yes, everything does seem difficult at the moment, it would seem like a quick solution but I feel I have to try everything first so I will go along to the specialist armed with all my questions of which I already have a long list!!, and see how all that goes. thanks for your help!!