Being young with dentures

I call 29 young. But I was just curious how many others on DP have fake teeth?

 

Combination of things honestly, Growing up my mother was handicapped and my father was happy where he was at in life which was low income. So when we had crooked teeth he just said, "If its not going to kill you; leave it alone". Then I smoked cigarettes for 14 years with a combination of drug abuse. Now that I quit drugs and cigarettes I actually smelled my breath and went to the dentist on my own accord. I only have an upper. My bottom wasn't as bad so just braces and fillings down there. But just curious about them now that I have some. Its certainly something to adjust to.

 

Wow, you are to be congratulated for your ability to overcome some serious obstacles. Now you have your next challenge: getting used to using dentures. While I do not have them, myself, I have had quite a few older family members who ended up with them. I have observed two outcomes in this regard:

1. One group always complains about their inability to eat with them and ends up taking them out when eating after a few attempts to learn to eat with them. It results in a miserable outcome because they have trouble eating anywhere in public because they are reluctant to take out the teeth and never learned to eat with them.

2. The second group puts up with the strangeness in their mouths, keep the dentures in when eating, despite the difficulties, and carry on. After a while, these folks become fairly happy with their dentures and tend to lead more normal lives.

You have many decades of life ahead, so you should make it a point to get used to and, in fact, become an expert in eating, talking, etc., with your dentures in place. Given what you have demonstrated in your life to date, I am confident that you will be able to do this.

 

im 40 and got dentures like 5 years ago. ive never worn them. its horrible. i cant drink, it just gets above the dentures and i gag. same with food

ever since i was a kid i didnt like brushing my teeth. besides im lazy with everything. there wasnt food around when my parents divorced, my mom was a bartender and a drunk and never home. i liked the taste of food in my mouth, i hated toothpaste. i never had a girlfriend after i was 21 so i never was around anyone or had to kiss anyone. by the time i was 35 they were all pulled already or rotting so i had them all taken out

 

Thank you for your kind words, I didn't skip a beat, I went 45 days with no upper teeth. So when he gave me the denture I threw away the instructions. Went across the road bought a slim jim, some doritos and a cheese danish. Then I had pork chops for dinner. The way I figure it, I won't ever get used to them if I don't put them to work. So now my issues are more related to speculations I suppose. I will watch youtube videos of others, and they will mention things that throw me off. Things like upper denture should fit without adhesive. I call hokum, I could not fathom how teeth would stay in place without any adhesives, so that in itself makes me wonder if mine is just too big. My main thing here was I just want to have a confident smile for the first time. I feel that people won't take me as serious with a mouthful of rotten crooked teeth. So With me getting my AAS in 2 semesters I figured this was the perfect time to get it taken care of.

 

Honestly I was gagging terrible the whole first day. I even took them out for an hour that day and then convinced myself to stick them back in. The gagging does stop. I had a terrible gag reflex. I assume its gone now. Now I just feel like they poke out like horse teeth. But maybe that's due to the broken off teeth I used to have. But eating is a bit of a challenge. I keep getting food stuck between the teeth. And since they have no feeling I don't notice without looking in a mirror.

Your early life history is not too far off from mine. Shame so many of us grow up like that. Im on my 5 year old niece about brushing her teeth all the time because how I grew up.

 

You can try to save up for implants. Today they can fix you up you will never feel like you have fake teeth. I was just watching something on TV this morning about this very subject. In Orlando, there's this one dental office, the main guy claims he and his staff can literally redo an entire mouth in like 1-2 days. But... it costs a lot of moolah. God willing, that's exactly what I am going to do with my teeth once they start getting unreliable. At least, partially.

 

My issue with the implants was the metal in my skull. Was not a fan of the idea. Also the drilling and the sound of the drill. I let em take out all 16 without anything but some Lidocaine. I did not take any of the Vicodin that they gave me after. But the implants just seem so horrid. Yea its almost $1250 per implant x 14. Whereas a denture was only about $1250 x 1. I am still considering having them do one implant on each side in the back. They say that helps keep the denture in place and keeps the jaw bone up. But again I just gotta mentally get past the fact that he would be drilling into my bone. Just bugs me to think about it.

 

I am no dental expert, but another option is do enough implants to put in a permanent bridge between them. My brother had that done and it works like real teeth. He only had it done to replace 5 or 6 front teeth, but I think that he had 2 implants (one on each end) to hold the entire structure in place.

 

That is so true. But it feels different. Only do it if you can live with that. Sometimes it's better to spend a little more just to keep the original ones.

 

my dentist agreed, that with the amount of damage done to the upper teeth, we surely could spend extra, get root canals, fillings, and what have you. But with over 16 fillings your odds of one breaking or dislodging is high. The structural integrity of the teeth was gone. That being said you could have fixed the teeth, but I would be back a lot in the future, for fixing every one of them. He suggested 14 implants. But I wasnt in the mood for pain nor did I want to pay out $13,000-15,000. The price of just under $2000 for an upper sounded far more appealing.

Now I am considering what @ jrbiz said. Go back some day and get maybe 4-6 implants in the back, then just do a bridge. I honestly did not think of that. But now I can understand the logic behind it.

 

I wasn't going to bring this up, but since you mentioned the previous possibility of a lot of fillings, structural integrity, etc...

I had a childhood of being in the dentist's chair way too much. The dentist that I had put fillings in just about every tooth in my mouth. Either I had the most cavity prone teeth in history or he needed the money. As a result, I try to do anything that I can to avoid work on my teeth as an adult. I will put up with tooth pain that others would be running in tears to the dentist with because I know that it will go away in a few weeks or months and I just don't chew on that side of the mouth until it heals. But I have a mouth full of metal from my younger years. As an example, a few years ago I had to change dentists and found an older fellow who had been practicing for 30+ years and had seen it all. He came in to my initial exam smiling and joking, but when he took a first look into my mouth, he took a couple of steps back, sat down on the exam room stool and said, "When I see a mouth like that, there has to be a story to it. Tell me your story."

Anyway, the purpose of this looong post was to illustrate that it is an option to stay with your own teeth even if they end being more metal than enamel as I have, though I have to admit that I tend to prefer soft food and am careful about what I bite into. I have broken off a piece of tooth/filling eating a spoonful of chocolate chip ice cream (frozen chocolate.) It's not for everyone, but it sort of works for me...

 

See he offered me that, and I can understand that. But in my opinion I figure that doing it the one time and then just maintaining would be a ton easier. But on my bottom, I will be getting at least 4-5 fillings so I will still be in that boat a bit. But with dentures, I can eat ice cream like a kid all over again. No more toothaches. And trust me I know about bad toothaches, I dealt with them my entire life, I never got taken to the dentist as a kid.

 

Hi KangBroke,

Thank you so much for sharing.
I confess to you that just the
thought that at such a very
young age, you are having to
get dentures really scares me.

I am not even sure why I am
scared.

But Qwikad.com is correct.
Dental services, these days, can
work wonders with/for one's
dental needs.

I am 63 years old, and I still
have all mine.

So i suppose I need to be
thankful, and to be careful at
the same time, based on
tunescool's share, earlier.

But I don't think you have anything
for which to despair, KangBroke.

Everything is terrific in the 21st
century. If science is not able
to fix you up as brand new, it
will be only because they have
not yet find that solution.

Good luck to you.

Alodie

 

Always go for the 2 times a year cleaning session. Those 3 hours at the dentist for the whole year will save you more time and thousands of $$$. Believe me.

 

Hi John Lucas,

Very, very sound admonition: "Those 3 hours at the dentist for the
whole year will save you more time and thousands of $$$. Believe me."

Very well said.

Thanks.

Alodie

 

On a sort of relevant note, has anyone read into the effect of Extra Virgin Coconut Oil on the teeth? I'm going to give that a try.

 

Do you have coverage for your dental care being that it's not cosmetic and is actually necessary? I'd imagine those procedures would be a lot to pay for yourself.