a1abob

Hi all,

I am glad to have found this forum and hope to get some helpful feedback. I am a 54 year old male and have had a lifetime of dental problems. I had my first root canal at 14 years old and never looked back. I believe every year of my life thereafter I have had something major done dentally. Five years ago I decided to move from the U.S. to Mexico and was thrilled to find a superb dentist (state of the art technology) with tremendous skills. Prices are also extremely low in comparison to the states (20% of U.S. prices).

After having my first few visits for needed procedures I decided to have him replace my "old" crowns on the bottom six teeth, due to the fact that he is a spectacular dentist and the price for all six was $1200 USD. I was thrilled with the results.

But problems kept on coming and recently I began to have decay under crowns, which means that you have to get rid of the crown, which is in great shape, repair the decay and get fitted for a new crown. I have even needed two root canals in the past three months for bad decay under good crowns. Today I had an appointment with my dentist and a very knowledgeable periodontist. The periodontist wants after looking at all my x rays and mouth to have all my crowns removed, have my gums treated and then new crowns that are a bit different put back on. These crowns are not very astethic and the gum line will be seen and there is also some space between the upper part of each crown.

After hearing this my dentist and I went into a private room to discuss what I heard and to tell me my options. He said that I would be disappointed with the way the new crowns look, as my gums need to be easier to clean, therefore there would be the space and a dark type of line on top of my crown. He also said that this was not a guarantee that the procedure will be successful. I do have a lower partial now that is full except for those front six teeth.

Then I asked the question that many are faced with. Is it time to have false teeth put in instead of sinking more money and time into a problem that has been happenning my whole life? He told me that as a dentist he was trained to save teeth and not pull them unless absolutely necessary, but this is something I need to think about, talk to others about and also research. He said that if I opted to go the dentures route that it did not have to happen right away. He said that when I had decay under a crown again he could drill off the crown and replace it with an inexpensive type of single tooth removable partial, and when it happenned again, we could do the same. Then he said one day, maybe in 2-5 years I would say that it was time to get rid of all the removable things and get a full set of dentures.

I am at step one right now - researching. Has anyone here had the shock and experience of having to put in dentures even though they thought they would live with some of their own teeth the rest of their life? I think of the investment I put into my mouth my whole life and it saddens me that I will lose all my teeth. Also the fear of all the negative things we all hear about false teeth is a scary thing as well. It is not the money that is completely forcing this decision; in due time I would have no choice either way.

Please all of you denture wearers, help me out with the good and the bad. I thank you all in advance so much.