New teeth

Back in Sept. 2009 Gil had his wisdom teeth removed along with several other teeth that had been damaged from radiation & chemo. At the time he had to undergo several hyperbaric treatments. As the years have gone on, his transplant in 2013, his teeth continued to weaken and break. My mom had accidentally damaged his front tooth when he tried to help her up out of her seat only to get head-butted, and another time she caught him in the mouth with her cane breaking another tooth. This past Christmas, while at the movies, he broke more teeth while eating a burger. That was it. It was time to get this fixed.

So we made an appointment with our dentist, and got the low down on how things would proceed. He recommended an oral surgeon. Told us how they would make a mold of his teeth to make the dentures and after surgery, removing all remaining teeth and roots, he would basically already have teeth. Sounded pretty good. We opted for posts on the bottom so the bottom denture would be a sort of implant, and stay in place. Sure, go in, teeth come out, new ones in, no problem, right?

Met with the oral surgeon; We were very happy to find out he would not have to have hyperbaric treatments, a very real worry because of how much time it takes. And the plan started to play out. 
Made the appointment for the dentist and had the molds made. The dentures would be ready in about a week, so made the appointment for surgery. That ended up being quite the day! 
I actually do not know how many teeth they took out, but he did come out with teeth, sort of. He was very sore that first day (not surprising), kept the teeth in as best he could those first 24 hours then to the dentist the next day for adjustments. Seems there will be a lot of adjustments before everything is settled in. Swelling has gone down now, but we are learning a lot as we go.

It’s funny to think that everything we know about dentures we lean vicariously through others. My aunt had them and I know how she cleaned them and how strange she looked without them, We’ve known people who had partials, but never really thought much about them. We know they take adhesive to stay in place, according to the commercials, and that things can get under them and irritate. But do you think about how much you FEEL your teeth? Think about it - rub your tongue against them, chomp them together...can you feel that? Remember those vampire teeth you may have tried on as a kid and how weird they feel? (Or don’t feel?). That’s one of the things that was a little unexpected - he couldn’t quite figure out how or where to put a straw in his mouth. Spatial orientation is a little off due to lack of feeling in his teeth - cause they aren’t really his. We suppose after things get into place and fitting better, he’ll adjust. I guess you just get used to them after a while. It will be interesting to see how this continues to work out. 

(By the way, my mom passed in April 2019)