Denture Adventure, Part 1

I just got top dentures today. I decided to keep a diary of sorts to see how this massive change to my face affects my life.

HOW MY TEETH GOT BAD

First, a little history. I have epilepsy and was put on the medication Tegritol from 1993-2008. In 2004 I was informed that the seizure medicine was softening my teeth, causing them to crack and making it easy to get cavities. I had severe allergic reactions to local anesthetics all my life, so I had to go to a dental school to receive general anesthesia. At that time, I was warned that the damage was too severe, and I would likely need dentures in 10 years.

Then I moved states and lost my insurance. I no longer had easy access to a dental surgery school. I went to the local dental school, but they could not transfer me to the surgical part. I would need a regular dentist to do that. Once my husband and I finally got on medical and dental insurance again, I began looking for a dentist who could do general anesthesia. I found one, who shall remain nameless. I was told that not only would I have to fly their general anesthesiologist from California, but then the cost would be $300 every 15 minutes. That did not include the dental work. All in all, $5000 was the quote. We barely had $1000 to spare. I got angry that I could fly to Mexico and have the same job done for half the price. After that, I pretty much gave up on the idea of fixing my teeth.

Five years passed. Teeth that had small cavities suddenly had gapping holes. Although I was no longer on that tooth-destroying medication, the damage was done. Simply biting into a peanut hidden in my Chinese food could crack and completely break off a tooth. I called dentist after dentist only to be told they couldn't help me due to my allergies and epilepsy. We lost our insurance again, and any hopes of getting work done died. I simply reduced my diet to pastas, soups, anything soft, and took care of my teeth as best as I could with restorative toothpastes and mouthwashes.

POINT OF NO RETURN

My teeth issue became so bad that five months ago, November 2011, I got a severe abscess. We were told that my husband's insurance would kick in 90 days after he was hired, so I put ice packs on my face and suffered through it for two weeks as we waited for that magical 90th day. It arrived, and we found out that 90 days was when he became eligible for insurance, but the actual coverage would not start until January 1st, 2012. The swelling was affecting my ability to breathe. I was a one step away from an ER visit. No way could I last that long!

The infection spread until it infected three teeth. I had to quit playing trombone. My throat swelled until I was gagging, I became feverish, my ears were affected, and I was stuck at home in utter agony.

I was desperate and went to Gentle Dental. Once again, I was told that they could do nothing for me, what with the health issues. However, since I was truly a medical emergency at this point, they set up for me to see an oral surgeon. That was arranged, and he asked if I had ever tried Carbocaine. Never heard of it. Last time I agreed to a medication I had never heard of before, I was given Diprivan and my throat swelled shut. However, that was already happening with the abscess. I knew this infection would become fatal if I did nothing. What did I have to lose?

Needless to say, I was desperate. I decided to play his game of Russian Roulette and try this mysterious new local anesthetic. Many precautions were taken: antibiotics, steroids, antihistamines, monitors all over the place to keep an eye on my vitals. Verced was used to deal with the epilepsy issues. I drifted off to sleep hoping that, at the very least, I would wake up.

It worked! No instant death, no choking, no swelling, no blood pressure bottoming out, no needing to be resuscitated. Three teeth were pulled, yet I was warned at that time, I really needed a denture. My top teeth were too far gone.

NEW DOCTOR, NEW TEETH

Finally we got insurance in January, and I started the process by getting a dentist in our town who took our insurance. My new dentist agreed, I needed my upper teeth extracted, a top denture, bottom bridge, and two root canals on the bottom molars. Well, our insurance only covers $1500 a year, the dentures alone were $1470 with the insurance covering 50% of that, so just one root canal would have eaten up the last of my benefits, and that's before surgery. I opted to just have those two pulled as well.

Then off to the oral surgeon. He decided to mimic the medicine use by the last oral surgeon: carbocaine, antihistamines, with Verced and Brevital. He also said I needed a frenulectomy. I have (or had, I should say) a muscle that stretches from my lip, between my front teeth--causing them to be widely spaced--and to the roof of my mouth. It's a genetic birth defect that I should have had fixed as a child but didn't have the money.

We had a game plan. Then it was back to the dentist a couple more times, getting impressions for my dentures. That was a gross experience. The putty squished back into my throat. They should have warned me to put my tongue back there to stop it. Instead, it dripped down the throat, and I was not allowed to lean forward and cough it out. I was a trooper, breathing cautiously as I felt this rubbery substance harden around my uvula and down my esophagus, recking havoc on my gag reflexes. It was supposed to set for four minutes. I lasted three before the hardening rubber made it impossible to breathe. The dentist realized I was seriously choking and turning purple, so she pulled it out fast. I then vomited out blue rubber and had to cough it out of my throat for a few minutes. Turned out the impression had an air bubble. Dammit! Three times, I went through this gross and--with such bad teeth--highly painful process before the molding was just right.

I had to wait another two weeks while the dentures were being made. During that time, one of my teeth broke while eating chow mien (yes, just chow mien) and formed an abscess. Antibiotics were all they could do since the tooth was scheduled for extraction. It turned into a painful race: could I put up with the abscess long enough until the tooth could be pulled?

DENTAL ARMAGEDDON

As a joke, I called this whole issue "Dental Armageddon." My teeth were getting "raptured" while I would be left behind in agony.

At 8:30 AM today, I went to the oral surgeon, got hooked up to the sedation IV, and fell into a wonderful sleep holding my husband's hand. I woke up with the nurse telling me over and over to open my eyes. They eventually did open, and quite widely at that, when the oral surgeon tried to fit my new denture right onto the holes of my newly-pulled teeth and one sliced-up frenulum. Oddly enough, what hurt far too bad to handle was the swollen area of my abscess. Either it did not drain well, or it was just too tender. The oral surgeon thought my hazy moans of agony were due to the frenulum and kept adjusting that part of the denture. I was too dazed to explain that it was fine, but the abscess area was too swollen for the denture to fit.

I got home and promptly fell back to sleep. I had earlier covered my pillow with an old blanket so I could drool blood without worries. This was a good plan, because I woke up with my mouth filled with blood, a massive blood clot on my tongue, and another on the roof of my new denture. The blood squishing out from the back of my denture made me gag. I nearly vomited from excessive bleeding twice.

Luckily, that got better after a few hours. As of now, it's still bleeding a lot, but not enough to choke me. I need gauze on the two bottom right molars that were extracted, and a balancing gauze on the left side, which helps to catch the blood squishing out of my denture.

FOOD AND NOMS

Since I was already limited on what I could eat, going to soft food is no big deal. For my first day after surgery, I had a strawberry Slim Fast shake so I could get my nutrition. I had another at lunch, with a small cup of strawberry yogurt. Dinner was cream of chicken soup, which I mostly drank since I'm not used to the lack of sensation on the roof of my mouth. Since that didn't fill me up, I had a cup of Jello pudding. Some melty vanilla ice cream for dessert was nice, since I rarely get ice cream, but my mom said it helped her to take down swelling when she got dentures. I have to lick up the pudding and ice cream since my mouth is too swollen for a spoon. I should have bought a baby spoon.

My drinks at first were just water, but after seeing that I was okay with Slim Fast, I requested my husband get me some almond milk. That was a little harder to drink, so I went back to water-based liquids. I had warm apple cider (not hot) with my dinner, and some warm licorice tea for bed.

THE FORGOTTEN

One thing that I found annoying was the last minute changes. First we were quoted that, after insurance, we owned about $3000. Then the oral surgeon office actually called the insurance. We owed only $1700. That's great, that's wonderful, but since we're pretty much broke, we needed to know how much money to beg our parents to give us. Being told one quote only to get another was stressful. At least it went down, not up.

Also, I should mention that it was the dentist's plan to have all of my work done on one day. This would include fillings, a deep cleaning of the remaining bottom teeth, extractions, and frenulectomy. We had checks written out for all of these. Then yesterday while we were calling around finalizing everything, the dentist just now informed me that she decided not to do the fillings today.

She was the one who demanded we have this on a Friday so she could come to the oral surgeon's office, but then she said she wouldn't have the equipment she'd need there. Shouldn't she have known what equipment she'd need from the very start? Or at least have figured out this whole issue during our "game plan" meetings?

The whole reason for the all-in-one-day plan was because of my allergies. Her office does not use carbocaine, and I have to be sedated for the epilepsy. That can only happen at the oral surgeon's place. Her response to this problem was "I'll call the oral surgeon and figure out what I can use here."

Really? And you decided to pull out of this collaborative job when? The day before surgery???

ANYTHING ELSE

So other than a flaking dentist and excessive bleeding, how am I doing? Much better than I feared. I thought I would be in utter agony, but the Vicodin is taking care of that. My denture is supposed to stay in for a while. It keeps bacteria out of the extraction holes, prevents dry socket, and the pressure helps with the healing. Right now, possibly due to swelling, my denture feels like it's suction-cupped to the roof of my mouth.

When I take out the gauze and test out my mouth a little, the teeth feel weird. My mouth was really messed up, so maybe this is how normal teeth are supposed to feel. I don't know. Swelling might also be a factor. My top lip doesn't fit over my dentures. They are half the length of my real teeth, but the gum feels twice as thick. My small upper lip simply doesn't stretch.

There's also a slight gap between the back of my denture and the roof of my mouth. Any pressure from my tongue there makes the denture feel like it's about the flip out. Except it really is suctioned in there. Which is good!

My husband is staying home to take care of me. Once I felt well enough to stand, we watched the 25th Anniversary performance of The Phantom of the Opera, our favorite musical. I've seen it live twice, and for our anniversary he took me to see the live world-wide broadcast from Royal Albert Hall. That's the video we watched, of that performance. It was a good way to cheer me up. Although I almost fell asleep during "Wishing You Were Somehow Here Again."

I've stayed in bed most of this first day. I'm waiting until I can take more Vicodin, then I should go to bed.

So this is Part 1 of my dental adventure.
Or I could say, Day One of Dental Armageddon!