|
First Visit 10-25
I arrived at the dentist, I was running a little late. The
assistant and hygenist met me when I went in. I asked them are they ready for me. They led me back and showed me which cubicle
I was going in. I went in and what did I see. All of those impression trays. Turned and the dentist was there. I told him.
"oh my all of those wonderful trays" with a little laugh. He told me I know you just love them. All joking of course because
I dont particularly care for having impressions done. He then sat down and told me what all to expect over the next few weeks.
He said that today we are going to get new impressions of your healed gums. We will then send that to the lab. Next Monday
when you come in we will have the wax impressions back from the lab and we are going to see if it all fits correctly. The
following Monday we will then get to put the teeth in the wax impression to see how we want your new smile to look. We have
discussed the size of the teeth, the lip support issues, etc. Once we have the wax impressions and start inserting the teeth
into it then we can see what all we like and dont like. Let me say here that I was really happy to hear him using the term
WE instead of I. Its a team effort to get the best smile for me. We discussed what all to expect in the next couple of weeks,
I was still wondering when or what he was going to do about the partials. He hadnt discussed that. Well I thought that
I would bring it up after we were done with the impressions. So then we started on the impressions. He told me that
the impression goo was a little different this time than it was for the immediate denture. He told me that it would be a little
thicker and wouldnt slide down my throat as bad. That was great news. I hated that part of the last impressions. The assistant
sized up my mouth and found the tray that would fit me best. He took a syringe and squirted a bead of the goo along the upper
gum line while the assistant was mixing up the acutal impression goo stuff. After he spread the bead along the upper gum line,
He then inserted the tray. OH my it was a tight fit. He held it there a bit. I felt sorta like I was going to gag on it. He
then said "I am going to raise the chair up a bit" afterwards he says "there is that better, you dont feel like you are choking
now do you?" I thought for a second nope it was much better. My mouth felt like it was full of thick thick pudding and it
was getting firmer. He then said ok all done now lets take it back out. Boy I was in for a big surprise. It wouldnt just pop
out. He had to kinda wiggle and tug and pull to get it to break free from the top of my mouth. He laughed a little and said,
"Thats how we want the permanent denture to fit, nice and tight." He said this at the beginning of taking it out. I was thinking
to myself I dont know if I want it to be this tight. Its going to hurt taking it out. Well surprise surprise it didnt hurt
one little bit. Just pressure pulling it away from the roof of my mouth. Nothing painful at all. YEAAA I am thinking that
would be a great fit. After we were done I was still wondering about the partials. Before I had a chance to speak he says
"Ok lets get the impressions on the bottom gums for the partial." Whew that was a relief, I knew then that he had it all in
his head even if he didnt tell me. So we did the impressions of the bottom gums. After was all said and done it seemed like
it took forever I was only in the chair a total of 30 minutes. He said that he would see me next Monday and we would see how
the wax impressions fit in my mouth. So cant wait for next week. But I am most excited about the following week when we start
inserting teeth to see how my new smile will look. I am nervous about the whole process. My hubby is not really wanting me
to change a thing. He says that he has adjusted to my new smile. He doesnt want to have to get adjusted to another new smile
right away lol. Oh how I love that man. He has been telling me how wonderful my new smile is and that he is proud of the steps
that I have taken. The only thing I really want to change at this point is the lip support. The dentist said that with more
lip support I would have a fuller upper lip. Which i really really want. It seems that with the immediate denture my top lip
has disappeared. Not really but it sure is very very thin compared to my before smile. I do plan on taking my sis to the appts
when we start inserting teeth etc. My hubby told her thats great. I am glad you are going with her please please dont let
them give her a hideous smile lol. She told him dont worry I will make sure that she keeps her new beautiful one just maybe
tweaked a little lol. Well I guess thats all to report for now. Stay tuned for next weeks installment. Me and my Wax mouth......
lol
Second Appt 11-01
Went in today. For second appt. The dentist had the wax impression ready for a try in. It
looked similar to a denture minus the teeth lol. I had to try this in my mouth. Felt real funny. Having a denture with no
teeth in it lol. He had also made a partial wax impression of the bottom so that we could see how the bite would work. Well
he asked me how I felt about size, color, and shape of my teeth. I am happy with all of that I told him, but I am concerned
with the protrusion of the teeth and my upper lip disappearing. He told me that it seemed to him that I was showing quite
a bit of gum area when I smiled. I agreed with that. He said that by cutting down the size of the pink area would also make
the teeth a little bit shorter as well but that he thought this would be the best step to take. So we began by putting the
wax impression in my mouth. He put it in and removed it quite a few times. He would trim it down a little at a time. He did
all the work on the wax impression right behind me so I couldnt see exactly how it was done but I did smell what smelled like
melted crayons lol. He also measured my face with a little slide type ruler with my immediate denture in. Then he did the
same with the wax impression after he had trimmed it down. After he had trimmed it down a bit and measured he told me thats
much much better. He was constantly checking the bite, the way my lips were falling over the denture all sorts of stuff. After
he was satisfied with the way it was after all the trimming etc. He had me put the top and bottom wax impression things in
my mouth. Then he took the goo gun (reminds me of a chaulking gun lol) and squirted this goo all around in the sides of my
mouth. It firmed up pretty quickly. Then he had to get it out of my mouth. What the goo had done was make the top and bottom
one whole piece. Had to open real wide to get that thing out lol. He then put my immediate denture back in without the bottom
wax impression. He then squirted a different type of goo in my mouth. I was thinking to myself. OH NO this goo is going to
form all over my immediate, how in the world is all of that stuff going to come off. Well after a few seconds he had me open
up. But this time it didnt form everything together. It popped apart. And he was able to take out the now firm goo impression
out of the bottom of my mouth. I guess this was to compare to the wax impression bites. He explained to me that next Monday
we would start seeing how the teeth looked in the wax impression. That would be the stage for setting everything up so that
I was happy with my new smile. The wax impression with teeth would be sent back to the lab to make my new permanent. I am
so excited to see what next week brings!!!!!
After we talked about all of that. I popped a question to him. So what all work
are we doing on the bottom. He looked at me kinda puzzled and said "I didnt think we were doing anything on the bottom, what
do you think we were going to do?" Well I told him real quick that I thought he was going to repair the three teeth on bottom
that we left. I didnt think to say anything about the partial for the bottom. He said that he would go take a look at my records.
He came back and told me "Your very right, We did discuss repairing those three on bottom, after we get done with the permanent
upper I will take care of that as well" Whew, I told him that I just wanted to make sure that I was thinking correctly. No
problem he said. Like I said earlier I didnt think to mention the partial. If I get it that will be great, if not thats fine
too. I havent had teeth back there in years so no biggie there. But I will be asking about it just to see what he says. It
may be in my records as well lol.
Well all in all I am very happy with the progress we are making. Make sure to
check back next week, I should have tons to say about the wax impressions with teeth lol.
Until next week...........
3rd Appt. 11/08
Ok before I get started on this weeks appt let me back track a bit to the middle of last week.
I was just puzzled and confused about the partial and what all work I would be having done on the bottom. I emailed my dentist
with my questions and concerns. Well he emailed me back on Thursday. He explained it all very very clearly. He told me that
He would be fixing the three teeth on bottom first. That he had to restore them before he could do the partial. He also reassured
me that he was planning on doing all this work that He had been focusing on the upper that He hadnt thought to explain all
of the lower work to be done. I was very glad to get this email from him. It relieved a lot of my fears about my lower teeth.
Ok now on to the visit this week. First off when I arrived he came in and told me I
am so glad that you emailed me. I was thinking after you left last week that I didnt explain myself clearly. He was wondering
if I understood or was confused. He told me that after he got my email he was sure that He hadnt done a good job of explaining
it all to me. And that he was glad that I had emailed so that He could explain it all. That it was important that we were
both on the same page and had the same agenda and understood what each other was thinking etc. That really made my day. He
then went behind me while still talking. He told me to go ahead and remove my immediate. He came around to the front of me
and said ok open up lets see how this looks in your mouth. I saw the wax impression was in his hand and it had TEETH lol.
I opened up and he inserted it. I ran my tongue arounda bit felt ok in fact it felt just like a denture lol. He then
inserted the wax impression he had made of the bottom. It didnt have teeth. He then took a look around the inside of my mouth.
He had me do a couple of bite downs. He then told me that the lower is a little off from the bite that I have so he had me
bite down then got his goo gun and said that he was going to set the bite with the goo so that the lower could be sent back
to the lab for a little tweaking. SO he did the goo. Then after it had set the upper and lower together he told me ok just
a sec and was holding onto the upper wax impression and told me ok now open and the lower and upper popped apart. There he
said that is perfect. He removed the lower it now had new bite marks in the goo that was just in my mouth. Said that now they
would be able to get the lower just right. He removed my lower wax impression. He told his assistant to hand me the mirror
and see what i thought about the upper wax impression. I was a little scared that it wouldnt be what I expected. But to my
surprise I was absolutely Thrilled!!! with the look. When I smiled my biggest smile it showed a little pink and thats all.
He said that I was showing a lot of gum before but now it would only show a little when i smiled really really big otherwise
it would only show my teeth. I hadnt really thought about it before. But thinking back to years and years ago. I never did
like my gummy smile. It had been so many years since I had really simled that I wasnt thinking about it. was just happy to
have pretty teeth. But now with the new wax impression in and showing only a little gum. I was thinking to myself YESSSS that
is what i had always wanted as a child!!!!! OH I was soooo happy with that smile. After a few minutes he says ok Dena have
to trade ya back. And he then handed me my immediate. I kinda held back until he said. Sorry Dena I cant let you keep
those. They would just end up melting in your mouth. I died out laughing and handed them over lol. I was so exicted over how
the actual teeth were in my mouth I totally forgot to check out my lips to see if it was the way that i had imagined. But
oh well, from how I felt at that moment with those teeth in my mouth I am not worried a bit about the lips lol. I will just
have to wait and see how they look after I get my new upper in my mouth. But even it is exactly the same as it is now I will
be sooo happy with that less gummy smile!!!!!!!
We then discussed the lower teeth etc. He told me that next week he was going
to restore the lower three teeth that I needed repaired. He told me that he had to have those restored before he could finish
the partial for the bottom. He told me that I would be getting a flexible lower denture and that it was called a Valplast.
he said that with this partial it would have little flexible things to hold it in place that they would not be metal they
would match the actual teeth, that it would hug the side of the the remaining teeth and stay in place perfectly. That sounded
tooo cool. He said that is why i have to have those three teeth repaired first so that they would be ready to size the thingys
that would attach the partial. That it would be a perfect fit with the restored teeth. I was just beside myself with the thoughts
of a matching partial. I was determined to remember the name of the partial so that I could do some research after I got home.
After discussing everything I made an appt for next Wed. 11-17. He said that
it would take about an hour to an hour and a half to repair those three. That he would be cleaning out any decayed material
and then restoring them with a bonding material. I just cant wait!!!!!!!
After I got home I hit the internet to research this Valplast partial. WOW I
was amazed at the price of this thing but the look of it really blew me away. It looks soooo natural and flexible I think
I am going to enjoy have back teeth again!!!!!!
Well until next week I will be sitting on the edge of my seat just waiting lol.
Be sure to check back next week with the update on how the restoration process went.
|
