Hey guys. Ok so I have a week left before my extractions happen. I went to the dentist today to have a bite registry done. It wasn't a lengthy process. I went in and had to bite down on a piece of dental wax. They lined my jaw up in the back and then I bit down. They wanted to see how my teeth naturally line up so that they can take this into consideration when they make my denture. It didn't take very long. The dentist came in to see me to talk more about the extractions. The doctor who will be doing the actual extractions is an anesthesiologist. They've all told me that he is very good, but I honestly didn't expect them to tell me anything else. I mean it's not like they're going to tell me he's horrible even if he is. I did Google him and I know he's not. He actually graduated from Pitt Dental School and was at the top of his class. His patients have really good things to say about him so in this case they are right. I guess the point I'm making here is that y'all really need to do your homework on these doctors who will be performing these procedures on your mouth if you are not already doing that. I assume you are though because here you are reading my blog so that indicates to me that you are looking for information on what to expect.
This is going to be a twilight sleep procedure. I know that probably sounds foreign to many of you and it did to me too so I looked it up. This is what I found out. They call it a twilight sleep because you will not be fully sedated. During a full sedation the patient is placed so far out of consciousness that they don't even breathe on their own. The surgical staff has to insert a respirator or a tube that goes down your throat so that it can breathe for you while the surgery is taking place. Once the surgery is completed the tube is removed. The patient often has no idea that the tube was even there. They will be performing my extractions right in the dentists office so we will not have access to this type of equipment. This means that I can't be fully sedated for this procedure. Instead, it is going to feel like I am sleeping. They can wake me up and ask me to move or do different things. I will be able to respond, but I won't remember doing it. As I understand it, the way this works is that I will not be able to eat or drink anything 8 hours prior to having the extractions done. I have to wear loose clothing; nothing restricting. They suggest sweat pants and a t-shirt. It has to be short sleeved or sleeveless shirt because they need to have access to my arms. I have to remove any jewelry that might get in the way; necklaces, earrings, nose rings, etc. The doctor will be calling me the night before my extractions to give me some pre-op instructions. Then, when I walk in there they are going to place an IV in my arm. Once the IV is in, they will place the sedative through the port in the IV. The doctor will be monitoring my sedation levels during the procedure to make sure there is enough medicine to keep me sedated the entire time. Then, they will be giving me Novocaine injections to numb my mouth. Once the Novocaine takes effect, they will begin the extractions. Apparently it takes about 30 minutes to extract a full mouth of teeth. I am not sure how long this procedure is going to take. My dentist explained that healthy teeth are more secure in their sockets than unhealthy teeth and in my case, my teeth are already very loose in their sockets so extracting them should not be that difficult. In some cases the tooth may be so eroded and brittle that the tooth actually breaks in half during the extraction process. This makes it necessary for them to go beneath the gum surface and essentially dig for the root of the tooth in order to remove it. When this happens there is more swelling and pain after the procedure is over. I suppose it largely depends on how well your teeth hold up during the extractions that determines how much healing will be required later.
After speaking to my dentist about that entire process, I came out of the exam room and back into the waiting room, the dental assistant walked me out and told me not to worry that it will all be fine. There were two other women in the waiting room and they both looked up at me as I was walking in there. My mother had been talking to them while she was waiting for me so when I walked over to collect my coat from her one of them asked me if I was having my teeth extracted. I told them I was having most of them extracted. The woman in the corner told me that it would change my life. I have to say that this woman did not have her teeth in. I wasn't sure what point in the process that she was in. The tone in her voice told me that she did not mean that this would change my life in a positive way. She then went on to tell me that she had lost 80 pounds because she wasn't able to eat. She had her teeth extracted a year ago and wasn't able to wear her dentures because they were so uncomfortable. It seemed like she was trying to scare me out of having this done. I knew that I didn't have options to save my teeth. I had been trying to avoid having my own teeth extracted for 10 years at this point. I had reached the end of the line. I either had to allow them to continue on in the shape they were in, which likely would mean progressively more mouth pain or have them extracted. There is no plan B. The other woman with very natural looking teeth looked over at her and said, "I didn't have that experience at all." After asking her a few questions, I was able to determine that she had her teeth extracted yesterday. She was there for her post-op appointment. My dentist asks to see his patients 24 hours after the time of extraction. So she was there to have him check her gums. She hadn't taken her dentures out of her mouth since they had been placed in after the procedure. Her mouth didn't look swollen. I couldn't even tell she had dentures. She had no issues talking and she wasn't gagging. She looked really good for someone who just had their teeth extracted the day before. I asked her if she liked her teeth and she told me she did. She assured me that I would be fine. She wished me good luck.
I spent some time thinking about the fact that this illustrates exactly what I have read about as I've been researching this for the past 3 weeks. It seems to me like there are 2 groups of people when it comes to dentures. There is a group of people who have very little trouble, varying degrees of swelling, and heal quickly. They seem to adapt very well to their dentures. They don't experience a whole lot of trouble with gagging. They realize that this isn't fun, but seem to deal with it without too many complaints. Then, there is group 2. They seem to have more of a traumatic experience dealing with the actual procedure. A lot of pain and discomfort. They have a hard time with the transition into a denture. They experience gagging or can't wear their dentures for various reasons so they can't eat properly. I guess it just causes me to wonder why people seem to have such extreme reactions to the process of having dentures. I understand that this is a traumatic thing so I don't expect it to be easy, but what puzzles me is the fact that there is no middle ground here. It's either people make the transition extremely well or with extreme difficultly. It also causes me to wonder which group I will fall into after my teeth have been extracted. I'm choosing to try to go into this with as much of a positive attitude that I can muster because I don't have a plan B. This is my only option.
Note: This was written on February 19, 2015. It is being published on March 4, 2015. I got behind in my blog entries and wanted to have time to edit each of these before publishing them to my blog.
This is going to be a twilight sleep procedure. I know that probably sounds foreign to many of you and it did to me too so I looked it up. This is what I found out. They call it a twilight sleep because you will not be fully sedated. During a full sedation the patient is placed so far out of consciousness that they don't even breathe on their own. The surgical staff has to insert a respirator or a tube that goes down your throat so that it can breathe for you while the surgery is taking place. Once the surgery is completed the tube is removed. The patient often has no idea that the tube was even there. They will be performing my extractions right in the dentists office so we will not have access to this type of equipment. This means that I can't be fully sedated for this procedure. Instead, it is going to feel like I am sleeping. They can wake me up and ask me to move or do different things. I will be able to respond, but I won't remember doing it. As I understand it, the way this works is that I will not be able to eat or drink anything 8 hours prior to having the extractions done. I have to wear loose clothing; nothing restricting. They suggest sweat pants and a t-shirt. It has to be short sleeved or sleeveless shirt because they need to have access to my arms. I have to remove any jewelry that might get in the way; necklaces, earrings, nose rings, etc. The doctor will be calling me the night before my extractions to give me some pre-op instructions. Then, when I walk in there they are going to place an IV in my arm. Once the IV is in, they will place the sedative through the port in the IV. The doctor will be monitoring my sedation levels during the procedure to make sure there is enough medicine to keep me sedated the entire time. Then, they will be giving me Novocaine injections to numb my mouth. Once the Novocaine takes effect, they will begin the extractions. Apparently it takes about 30 minutes to extract a full mouth of teeth. I am not sure how long this procedure is going to take. My dentist explained that healthy teeth are more secure in their sockets than unhealthy teeth and in my case, my teeth are already very loose in their sockets so extracting them should not be that difficult. In some cases the tooth may be so eroded and brittle that the tooth actually breaks in half during the extraction process. This makes it necessary for them to go beneath the gum surface and essentially dig for the root of the tooth in order to remove it. When this happens there is more swelling and pain after the procedure is over. I suppose it largely depends on how well your teeth hold up during the extractions that determines how much healing will be required later.
After speaking to my dentist about that entire process, I came out of the exam room and back into the waiting room, the dental assistant walked me out and told me not to worry that it will all be fine. There were two other women in the waiting room and they both looked up at me as I was walking in there. My mother had been talking to them while she was waiting for me so when I walked over to collect my coat from her one of them asked me if I was having my teeth extracted. I told them I was having most of them extracted. The woman in the corner told me that it would change my life. I have to say that this woman did not have her teeth in. I wasn't sure what point in the process that she was in. The tone in her voice told me that she did not mean that this would change my life in a positive way. She then went on to tell me that she had lost 80 pounds because she wasn't able to eat. She had her teeth extracted a year ago and wasn't able to wear her dentures because they were so uncomfortable. It seemed like she was trying to scare me out of having this done. I knew that I didn't have options to save my teeth. I had been trying to avoid having my own teeth extracted for 10 years at this point. I had reached the end of the line. I either had to allow them to continue on in the shape they were in, which likely would mean progressively more mouth pain or have them extracted. There is no plan B. The other woman with very natural looking teeth looked over at her and said, "I didn't have that experience at all." After asking her a few questions, I was able to determine that she had her teeth extracted yesterday. She was there for her post-op appointment. My dentist asks to see his patients 24 hours after the time of extraction. So she was there to have him check her gums. She hadn't taken her dentures out of her mouth since they had been placed in after the procedure. Her mouth didn't look swollen. I couldn't even tell she had dentures. She had no issues talking and she wasn't gagging. She looked really good for someone who just had their teeth extracted the day before. I asked her if she liked her teeth and she told me she did. She assured me that I would be fine. She wished me good luck.
I spent some time thinking about the fact that this illustrates exactly what I have read about as I've been researching this for the past 3 weeks. It seems to me like there are 2 groups of people when it comes to dentures. There is a group of people who have very little trouble, varying degrees of swelling, and heal quickly. They seem to adapt very well to their dentures. They don't experience a whole lot of trouble with gagging. They realize that this isn't fun, but seem to deal with it without too many complaints. Then, there is group 2. They seem to have more of a traumatic experience dealing with the actual procedure. A lot of pain and discomfort. They have a hard time with the transition into a denture. They experience gagging or can't wear their dentures for various reasons so they can't eat properly. I guess it just causes me to wonder why people seem to have such extreme reactions to the process of having dentures. I understand that this is a traumatic thing so I don't expect it to be easy, but what puzzles me is the fact that there is no middle ground here. It's either people make the transition extremely well or with extreme difficultly. It also causes me to wonder which group I will fall into after my teeth have been extracted. I'm choosing to try to go into this with as much of a positive attitude that I can muster because I don't have a plan B. This is my only option.
Note: This was written on February 19, 2015. It is being published on March 4, 2015. I got behind in my blog entries and wanted to have time to edit each of these before publishing them to my blog.
3:49 PM
