Topic: Cholly

[wendyjo]

I didn't want to hijack that other thread about the teachers, but I'd like to ask some question about your teeth.

First off, how awful was it having them all pulled at once?  Were you asleep?  Any complications?

So you have dentures now?  How are they?  Do they hurt?  Can you eat well with them?

This will probably be my fate one day so I'm very curious as to how your experience has been.  I know two people who have full dentures, both of them middle aged, and they both HATE them and wish they had kept their own teeth even if they only had 2 or 3 of them to chew with.

[ShieldWolf]

Well it's a good thing you quit smoking cause there would have been a chance of infection since you had your choppers yanked. At least that's what I assume what you meant in your post about it being an oppurtune time to do so. Keep it up man. I'm 4 years smoke free come Thanksgiving.

[LittlePuff]

Man! He's not very old!

[wendyjo]

Well I am imagining having about a dozen dry sockets from smoking after having all those teeth pulled!  Gah that would send someone over the edge of sanity!

I'm not very old either but my teeth are shot.  I've already had alot pulled and the ones that are left ain't doing so well.  It's mostly old fillings from when I was a kid that have broken and taken half the tooth with it.  And I don't do well with root canals - they always end up infected and the tooth gets pulled anyhow, so now I just go ahead and get it pulled right away if they even suggest a root canal.  

I have no back teeth left at all - luckily I'm an old grump and rarely smile so you don't notice the missing teeth.  But if one more comes out then Ima look like a hick

[RinsMom]

Hubby had his uppers pulled 1 1/2 years ago...... he went to one of those "dentures in a day" thing, and yes, he was uncomfortable for a few days, but it did work out fairly well.  He went back several times (as they suggested) for re-lining as the swelling went down, (he was fitted with a 'temporary' denture), and at about 6 months got the better set.  They send you home with the denture in place (which helps keep the swelling down, too), and followed their instructions very closely.

As far as I know, he has felt SO MUCH better since getting the tops ones removed... he had also been plagued by broken teeth, root canals, crowns, and would sometimes just go lay down because of the mouth pain.

He tried to quit smoking then, also.....  got the patch, but would still smoke occasionally WITH the patch....  within about 6 months he gave up on the patch completely, and still smokes (despite being diagnosed with emphysema about 5-6 years ago....)

Cholly... congrats on the quitting smoking!  That is a VERY tough thing to do!

[Cholly]

The oral surgeon that did mine was fantastic. It was done under local, it was suggested that I take my MP3 player and I did, and glad of it. In addition to the 22 pulled, he had to plane the bone on the inside a to a lesser degree the outside of my lower right jaw, that's taking some time healing, but it's nearly there now. To do all that, stitch me up and slip in my dentures took about 2 hours.
Cheap dentures are not the way to go, my wife got cheapies and won't wear them. Mine were $1100 and they got the uppers spot on. You could tell the difference just looking at them. 30 minutes after I put them in in the morning and they don't bother me. I'm pretty sure the lowers need adjusting, but I won't know for sure until I finish healing.
As far as the procedure of tooth removal/bone planing, yeah it was kinda rough on me, but not nearly as bad as I feared. What sucked was waiting for the pain meds prescription to be filled. I was ready to scream by the time I got it.
First 36 hours was pain pill and sleep. I'm a good sleeper. After that I started coming down to the 'puter for a little bit and reassuring Clifford the Big Red Fish that I'd still be around to feed him. He ate for my wife(first time ever, I think he knew something was up), but was definitely glad to see me.
I'm still learning to eat with them, but it's to be expected, it took almost a week to talk like my old self.

Don't skimp on the dentures themselves, we did with my wife's and she won't wear them. Ask around, the place I got mine done did my mother's in 1963, which she didn't need replaced until 2001 almost 40 years later. If I get half that, I'll be pretty happy. I haven't heard of one person happy with their dentures from the place my wife got hers done.

[wendyjo]

I can't believe they did all that under local!  I get put into twilight sleep just to have 1 tooth removed (I pay alot extra for it too but I feel it's worth it).   The only time I ever had a tooth pulled without being put out was by a tiny little asian woman dentist, and she was so small she was practically up in my lap trying to get leverage to pull the tooth out.  I found it to be violent and traumatic and said "Never again!".  Oh and I was all numb and went across the street to the drug store for my pain meds and everyone was looking at me funny.  When I got home I saw that I drooled blood all over my chin!

[Cholly]

This guy got 22 out in under 2 hours and that was with 5 of them broken, one at the gum line. I was never in distress really(the nearest I was to distress was the bone grinding, I think that's understandable), but it definitely took the starch out of me. I do have a pretty high tolerance for pain, but I admit, when he said they'd do it under local I was a bit nervous. As it turned out, he was a good judge(and the music from my MP3 player helped a lot!) and he never lied to me(except about the shot "pinches" but I think that's a lie required by the ADA. )

[EowynJane]

I am so sorry that I read this.

[Cholly]

Do your jaws hurt EJ?