Preparing For Dentures

As I mentioned before there were 3 appointments that I had to make with my dentist prior to having my teeth extracted.  The extraction date is set for February 25, 2015.  It gives me 3 weeks from my initial consultation until the extraction date.  The second appointment was set for February 11, 2015.  I had to have impressions taken of my teeth so that they could have a mold of my teeth to work with.  The mold of my dentures would be made from this impression.  I didn't realize until a friend of mine told me, but the lab technician that makes the dentures is an actual artist.  They actually sculpt the teeth to get them as natural looking as possible.  The quality of the denture is determined by the skill level of the artist making them.  He graduated from an art school with a degree in mechanical design (or something to that effect).  It is the degree required to produce the special effects seen in movies.  He has fellow artist friends who have jobs working in the field designing dentures in the lab.  I don't know if all dentures are made this way, but this is how mine were done.

Impressions are made by taking a metal tray that will fit inside your mouth comfortably.  The dentist or technician will place the empty tray inside your mouth to see if it is the appropriate size prior to taking the impression.  Then, they will place a substance inside it that is about the consistency of a thick, goopy paste.  It is almost the consistency of Silly Puddy or Play Dough.  It feels very cold and odd inside your mouth.  The dentist or technician will push that tray into your mouth.  You have to keep your mouth as still as possible during this procedure.  Make sure to keep your tongue still as well.  Otherwise you'll have to have it done again.  Might as well be good the first time so they don't have to keep repeating it.  They will repeat this to the bottom of your mouth.  Some people may gag when it is done so movement may not be something you can control.  They can use a spray on the back of your throat to help prevent gagging if it becomes a problem.  I didn't find the process to be too uncomfortable and I didn't gag at any point during the procedure.  They did have to repeat the impressions of my lower teeth 3 times before getting them to my dentists level of perfection.  The top impression was perfect on the first try.

After the impressions were taken, I was able to choose the color of my dentures from the Vita shade guide (shown below).  The shades A1 - D4 are shades of natural teeth.  The shades M1, M2, and M3 are shades of teeth after a professional whitening treatment.  According to my research, you should choose a color that most closely matches the white parts of your eyes.  This is to keep the overall appearance of your face balanced.  Some people don't want to call attention to their teeth so they would prefer that people see their entire face rather than make their teeth the focal point.  My dental technician urged me to go with the shade A1, but I didn't think that was white enough.  I went into this thinking that I was going to get the brightest white that I could find (within normal limits of human teeth).  I wanted to go with shade B1 because it seems whitest to me of the natural shades.  Then, I noticed the M1 shade which is even more white.  My dental technician had a fit.  She kept telling me that these shades were both really white.  She told me that they were going to look a lot more white in my mouth.  I figured that this is an immediate denture so I would go with B1 for now and if I felt it could be more white, then I can always choose M1 for my permanent teeth.

This is the shade chart I was shown in order to make my choice of denture shade

The third appointment was scheduled for February 19, 2015.  This appointment was for a bite registry.  This process is very brief.  The dental technician brought out a piece of dental wax and asked me to bite into it.  This was to determine whether I had a natural overbite or underbite to my teeth.  It is done to ensure that your teeth are lining up properly in your mouth after they are made.  The idea is to match everything up as closely to your natural teeth as possible.  This will ensure that the pressure inside your mouth is more evenly distributed.  

The next appointment I had was the actual extraction date.  So initial consultation, impressions, and bite registry.  Then the extraction date.  I'm not really nervous now, but I imagine as the appointment comes closer that I will become a nervous wreck.  I'm trying to focus on the idea that I will feel better when it is over and I will not have all of the nerve pain in my mouth anymore.

Note:  I wrote this on February 11, 2015.  I did not get it published until February 28, 2015.  The extraction has already been done at this point.  I got a bit behind with the editing portion so I'm posting these daily until I get caught up.

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9:08 AM

My Denture Story

Teeth really aren't something that most people think about.  We all have had them ever since we can remember.  I'm sure everyone has elementary school pictures when they were missing their front teeth.  I remember trying to tie dental floss around my tooth to pull it out because I wanted to catch the tooth fairy when she came.  Most of us don't think any more about our teeth until they are messed up.

I wasn't a kid that was lucky enough to be born with perfectly white or straight teeth.  I had an overbite that was dangerously close to being buck toothed.  I've always had a small gap between my two front teeth on the top.  When I was a kid they looked like they were too big for my mouth.  As I grew up, they eventually looked to be the right size.  That gap became something I was known for.

This is me at age 10 on the right

I don't know that you can really see the gap between my front teeth because the picture is rather old and a bit blurry, but you get the idea that my teeth looked a little goofy back then.

I've always had problems with my teeth beyond just cosmetic issues.  when I was 3 years old I got scarlet fever.  I remember being sick and watching Sesame Street in the living room.  My aunt was there babysitting me and my sister for some reason.  I was eating crackers.  They tell me I had a seizure, but I don't remember that.  I only remember being shoved in a bathtub of cold water and I was not happy about it.  I was taken to the hospital because I had a fever of 104 degrees.  I can understand why that would be alarming to my Aunt.  They gave me a medication to reduce my fever.  It was some form of tetracycline.  It turned my baby teeth to a dark yellowish-brown color.  It made my teeth look as if I had been a smoker for 20 years.  Later on when my secondary (adult) teeth came in, they came in looking like they had grey streaks in them.  It was subtle, but my dentist noticed it and wanted me to get veneers when I was 18.  It also apparently caused my tooth enamel to be more thin than it should have been.  It basically means that my teeth came in weakened which is something that I was completely unaware of as I grew up.  As I said, I didn't think about my teeth much while I was growing up.

My dentist recommended braces when I was 13 years old.  My orthodontist put a dental appliance over the roof of my mouth.  It was attached to the molars that were the furthest back.  They call them 12 year old molars.  It was just a metal bar that went across the roof of my mouth.  It made it difficult for me to talk and made me drool when I first got it, which was kind of gross.  I had a key that came with it.  It was attached to a very long string.  I never was able to say the word "cute" while I had that in.  I had to turn the key every other night before I went to bed.  It was supposed to widen my upper jaw to correct my overbite.  I wore it for 6 months and then I got my braces on.  They stayed on for 4 and a half years.  That was over 4 years of wax because my braces would sometimes dig into my cheek.  I had to wear small rubber bands over various parts in order to correct various areas of my teeth.  I remember having to place a rubber band on the side near my canine teeth for some reason.  Then there was a few months there where I had to put one in a square shape in the front of my mouth while I slept.  By the time I was a sophomore in high school, my braces came off.  I didn't have an overbite anymore and I no longer had a gap.  I had my teeth professionally whitened to help correct the staining.  Shortly after that, I began a career in modeling.

I was a model from the time I was 14 years old until I was around 21 years old.   I spent a lot of time in the spotlight during my childhood.  I performed in theater groups because my father really wanted me to have a career in acting.  I competed in beauty pageants.  Then, I modeled and eventually got a modeling contract.  I opted to give all of that up to get married and have children.  When I say opted, I mean to say that a month after I got engaged to my future husband, I found out I was pregnant with our son.  I had to give up my modeling contract as a result.  It's not anything that I was ever bitter about, it's just how things happened for me.

This is one of my last modeling photos taken when I was 21

I brushed my teeth like I was supposed to and went to the dentist's office once or twice a year to get my teeth cleaned.  I didn't have many cavities; maybe 1.  I had my wisdom teeth out between the ages of 21 - 24.  I didn't have them all out at the same time and I was pregnant with my daughter so we had to wait until after she was born to finish the remaining wisdom teeth.  They weren't impacted, but they also weren't coming through all the way so I had to have them pulled.  The last one was removed when I was 24.  I had my back teeth sealed twice to reduce the formation of cavities.  I had my teeth scaled for the first time when I was 26.  I was too busy running around after my children and let a year or 2 go by without making it to the dentist's office.  It caused tarter to build up around my gum line, which made this necessary.  I had contracted gingivitis and this was the treatment recommended.  I was taught how to properly floss my teeth.

My husband decided to depart from the military and adjusting to civilian life was a larger adjustment than I originally realized.  This clearly affected our dental insurance.  The insurance we got from our civilian jobs was no where near as good as the insurance we had in the military.  In spite of all of these dental visits and care that I put into my teeth, I bit into a jelly bean and one of my teeth crumbled.  My teeth didn't look bad at all, but when the tooth crumbled it revealed heavy decay under the part that had been white.  It seemed like they were decaying from the inside out.  Although, now I can see that what was actually going on is that my gum disease had gotten worse because we couldn't afford the expensive treatments needed to reverse it.  My teeth were forming cavities at the gum line, which allowed decay to spread through the inside of my teeth.  Once that first one crumbled, the one on the other side of my mouth soon followed.  I had to have both of my teeth extracted that were next to my front teeth at the top (I believe they are called lateral incisors).  We tried to have as many of these treatments done, but I lost another tooth in the back about two years later.  Then, one of my canine teeth broke off at the gum line.  Now I have another of my canine teeth that has chipped to a point that is really close to the nerve.  It's causing a lot of pain.  A few weeks ago, I noticed that the glands under my jaw on either side are swollen.

The above image was taken a few weeks before my lateral incisors crumbled to illustrate how white and normal looking my teeth were just moments before they crumbled.

I went to a new dentist in January and he told me that the infection has spread into the socket of all of my teeth on the top.  It's causing decay to develop there which is leading to bone loss.  The teeth have already begun to get lose so it is now necessary for me to have them all removed on the top.  I also have to have 6 of my bottom teeth in the front removed for the same reason.  My 8 bottom molars are allowed to remain because they don't seem to be as effected as the rest of my teeth.  The thing is that I went in to discuss only the possibility of removing my 4 canine teeth and getting partial dentures on the top and bottom to fill in the holes.  So, jumping from discussing the extraction of 4 teeth to now discussing having 18 teeth extracted was a bit of a shock to me.  However, the idea of having a healthy mouth and healthy looking white teeth was extremely attractive to me.  Clearly my mouth is full of infection currently.  Plus it is actually cheaper for me to have these teeth extracted.  I will be able to have an immediate denture placed at the time of the extraction.  I will have to wait a few months after the extraction to be fitted for my lower partial denture.  Then, in six months I will be able to have a permanent denture made.

I have made all the necessary appointments required to get this process started.  It looks like I have 3 weeks between today and the time my teeth are extracted.  I will have to get impressions taken at my next appointment.  So, this is where my blog is going to begin.  I will try to present all of this information as it applies to my experience, but also include the information that I dig up along the way for anyone who may have to face becoming a denture wearer.

This is what I look like today.  Notice I'm not smiling anymore.  The previous picture is the last photo that was taken of me where I actually smiled.  There is a 10 year difference between it and the above photo.

Note:  I did type all of this up on February 4, 2015.  I did not get around to posting it until February 27, 2015 and by this point the process has already been completed.

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2:43 PM

Welcome

Welcome to the Denture Diaries.  Did you know that 99% of the American population will end up with dentures at some point in their lifetime?  True story and  most people believe that this is not going to happen to them.  Let's face it, the majority of people won't think about their teeth until they have dental problems.  In 12 days, I will become one of the 99% of Americans with dentures.  I wanted to get proactive and create a  place where I could share what I have learned about this process with all of you.  I'm not a dental health professional, but I can research things online like a pro.

After I heard the news that I would be getting dentures, I came home and freaked the hell out for a while.  This major freak out involved a really good friend, a lot of beer and a few shots of heavy alcohol.  Then, I decided to research the procedure.  I found that there are more people out there talking about this than I had originally anticipated.  Normally dentures are not something that people talk about.  I decided that if I was sitting here looking up information that would help me to feel better about having to go through this, then maybe at some point in time there will be someone else out there that I might be able to help by sharing my experiences here.

I'm fortunate to have a good support system, but I understand that the first step in any journey is often the hardest to take.  I intend to cover everything I can about my own experiences and any other piece of information that I feel might be helpful.  I'm hoping that if I write about my experiences and you guys reading this write about your experiences then maybe together we can create an informative place for someone to visit that might be looking to take their first step.  Wouldn't it be cool if through this website someone could come here feeling afraid and alone because their teeth are bad, then together we could take them by the hand and lead them through the entire process?  I think that would be one hell of a positive influence to unleash upon the world.  I also think that our world could use more positive things.  I hope you've enjoyed your visit here and I hope that you will consider helping me to create a place of hope for anyone out there who may be feeling as if their whole world just fell apart.

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11:27 PM