Got Dentures? How ya like them?

Gator Bait · June 2011

Hi All,

Well, after a life time of dental horror shows and bad teeth it looks like I am a candidate for some new choppers. I have been waiting to see a new dentist for the past three weeks and in that time I have had at least four major tooth aches and have been eating over the counter pain killers like candy.
Thursday noon I had an appointment that included exam, evaluation and x-rays free of charge. This appears to be a top notch outfit and I was very impressed. I had never seen digital x-rays before, they even had a machine that did one of all your teeth at once in a sort of panorama! All your x-rays, charts and data are available on a 17" HD monitor mounted on each dental chair. As the Dr. does the exam there is an assistant that enters the information directly into your computer record and it appears on the monitor with everything else. If the Dr. needs to refer to anything while talking to you she has it all right there in front of both of you.
After the exam you meet with the office manager who in my case was the young lady that was acting as the Dr.s assistant entering my data during the exam. She explains all your options to you as far as types of dentures and financing and all that good stuff. All said and done after having my last sixteen teeth extracted, some surgically, some normally, I would eventually have two pairs of their premium dentures. The first set would be ready the same day they extract the teeth. After your mouth has a chance to recover they make the second set. When those are done the original set is sent back and relined to the last set of impressions they made for the final set.
Total bill is just shy of $5000, soup to nuts. I went into this with the thought that if I could get all my teeth taken care of for $5000 I would be darn lucky. The last time I had an evaluation like this done the guy wanted to do upper and lower partials and caps and crowns on everything else. He was talking $10-20,000!
If you have dentures I am curious what you think of them? How were they to get used to? I know they are not perfect and will take time to get used to but they should be a great deal better then what I have now. Living down here in Florida I am sure a large part of our population has them but with todays technology you have a hard time telling by just looking at someone and I never hear of people complaining very much about them. I would love to hear from my family here on the forum that has dentures what you think of them. I'm just curious, I do not have other options and am running out of teeth to eat with and am in way to much pain to stay the way I am.

Thanks All,

Blair

missyjane · June 2011

Don't have them personally, but was a dental assistant for several years.

It depends some on you/your reaction to having a mouthful of stuff and some on fit. Uppers can tend to be "gaggier" but if they fit well are great,it seems.
If they are good ones there are times when even I cannot tell they are dentures just looking at someone till they get taken out. (be sure to take in some before pics of you smiling so they can match best as they can some shape and natural "layout."
The DDS seems pretty thorough, so I would assume they would be good, price is not always a giveaway to quality. A DDS who is also Panke Institute trained is always preferred if possible, it almost sounds like this guy is, by the sounds of the exam you describe. I have worked for good ones and bad ones. Yours sounds good.

Lowers are a different story all together. Uppers basically seat against the hard and soft palate forming a suction that holds them in and makes them very stable. The underside of the tongue is a very unstable place with all the moving around and pulling every which way it never forms a suction so they pretty much float around. The most complaints we heard were about unstable lowers. If there is any possibility of keeping a couple teeth on the lower, I would, they can be "anchors" to help keep the lowers more stable. If not, it will be ok as long as they are good fitting. The DDS should do several tests with you like sticking your tongue out and speaking certain words that may make them move.

Relining (which is the process when they send the first ones back) helps maintain the seal/suction and fit. The first dentures "Immediates" will be looser to accommodate for the swelling and the bony sockets that will reduce and cause the dentures to fit terrible, so it is good that they are including this in the cost. The better the fit the less sore spots you will have. Make sure they include all the adjustments, for like at least a year or so in that price. It sounds like they probably will, but be sure. You don't want to run up the bills just to get adjustments.

Price seems just a little high to me, in Michigan, but you are getting more it seems. If you have any questions, feel free to email me.
And NEVER EVER brush them at the kitchen sink with the garbage disposal ON.

They will never be the same... I GUARANTEE it.

I can tell you the story sometime if you would like.

missyjane · June 2011

And the cool panorama xray is called a panorex! Good job almost guessing it! The digital is very cool. They can enlarge stuff to get a really close look, where before we had to take more xrays and get better glasses and poke around more- YIKES. :laugh:

Got Dentures? How ya like them?

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