my false teeth trip

 my false teeth trip

Rick Steingress Glad to hear this. Need new teeth myself. How much did it cost, if you don't mind my asking. And I also have a jewelry background. What did you use to adjust them?

my cost is irrelevant. the cost varies wildly. while doing research i found a 2009 posting on a forum by a guy who had exactly what i had done and it cost him $12K. i forget where he was. i have been going to my dentist for 30+ years and i'm sure they gave me a good price. it depends on a lot of variables. like how many teeth you have pulled and how many visits it takes. they pulled 12 of mine at one sitting. i was in the chair two hours. that's unusual. i had six upper and six lower. two cut out. that means more too. i used high speed grinder for the big stuff then fine tuned with diamond files/rasps and emory stones. polished with 3m brightener pads.

there are two options they will offer you. one is "immediate" dentures. crazy as it sounds they take impressions BEFORE they pull the teeth and have the dentures madeup. then they pull the teeth and slap in the dentures same sitting. i learned the hard way how bad this is with my partials. i can't imagine the human suffering this causes. i suffered 8 months because thats how they did my partials. i got tired of suffering and adjusted them myself. just about in time for the re-lining. after that they fit great.

the second option they offer is pull teeth and wait 6-9 months until the gums have totally collapsed. dentures fit better like this and probably won't need re-lining for years afterward. re-lining costs approx. half what the denture costs. so it saves money but who wants to go without teeth that long. also you don't want to go more than 9 months to a year without dentures as the jaw re-locates causing problems.

 i opted for MY WAY..... as soon as the wounds were healed, which coincided with the first checkup on the month anni of having them pulled, i insisted they take impressions and fit me for teeth. i must incude that i had COLLOIDAL SILVER to use as mouthwash which speeded the process. i never even took a single antibiotic pill.

the uppers only needed one minor inletting for a bone protrusion and they fit perfect. on the other hand the lowers were a fuggin mess. still adjusting on them . somebody in the process surely screwed up on them. one the second month anni i was eating corn on the cob. many think it's impossible to do that at any stage of the process.

what i did is grind a little and wear a little maybe eat something. the pain is easy to locate. leaves marks on the gums too. i carefully marked the dentures with a marks a lot and simply ground the marks away. take it slow. put the grinder in a vise and hand hold the dentures. no chance of losing it that way. inlet the areas needed first. if they are too great so as to thin the denture out too much then notch them. don't notch first.

some dentists say wear them 24/7 others say take them out at night. i found with my partials' that i couldn't wear them 24/7 because the gums collapsed and the dentures rested on bone, pinching the skin painfully. for my partials i took them out at night but i still had teeth left to hold my jaws in place. with no teeth i found it very uncomfortable to sleep without teeth. so i compromised. i take them out after supper when i clean them and leave them out until bedtime.

i found that sleeping with them made for a relaxed fit. i would (still) grind on them first thing every morn where the sores were from wearing them all night. then eat and do it again after eating each meal.

it's a tricky proposition. each minor adjustment moves the entire denture and would make somewhere else sores. the protrusions would hold the dentures up off gums so it was a continuous process. finally i got the dentures sitting firmly on the top of the gums. that greatly improved the fit. now i am trimming the skirts because they are hurting the area where the cheek meets the gums. i think today may be the last. i just ate a subway sandwich no problem. they fit so tight now i can't use stickum. but when the gums collapse more i will be able too then reline when it's over.

hope this helps. just remember. take it slow. tiny chunks. good luck.

ps. so far the only two things i have trouble eating are M&M's ( the shells get down where the dentures meet the cheek and feel like glass shards 0 and, of all things, grits ( which get under the dentures and feel like sand. so i remove them for both of those things.

Sept. 10 2013

update on my false teeth adventure.

well as you know i got the teeth. but i was unable to use them the first week due to awful painful fit. went for adjustment and could wear them but only eat soft foods because of the pain. took them out another five days because dentist closed for holiday.

another adjustment and some strips and pain killers and could eat some.

got tired of this shit. even though... i get free adjustments for first six months, the dentist is 50 miles away. extended travel and extended pain. so i decided to adjust myself.

since i dabble in jewelry making i have the micro tools to do the job.

i do it all by hand.

i wear them all night. first thing in the morning i note where pain is and the cause..... i shave a little off.

all day eat something, note pain cause, shave a little off....

after ten days of this they are finally fitting PERFECT.

i ate fried chicken and corn on the cob without denture adhesive and without any discomfort at all......

i don't see how it's possible for the dentists staff to adjust peoples dentures without daily visits till done.

people must be suffering terribly doing it the conventional way..

Sept.24, 2013

14th day straight I've ground on my dentures.

Ate at hibachi oriental buffet yesterday. 280 items. Had a bite of almost everything including french bread garlic toast, corn on the cob and ribs. Ate all just like I would with natural teeth.

No pain killer, no stickum, no problem.

I hate to take them out now.

update Feb 12, 2014

my gums shrank enough to make the teeth too loose to use. It’s too soon to reline them permanently so I decided to reline them temporarily myself. I use WAX. Simply painted on melted wax and popped them in my mouth and clamped down. When the wax was hard enough I removed and trimmed the excess.

They were mis-aligned because i used too much wax. So I heated some water to 110 degrees and poured it in a bowl and put the denture in it. I watched it closely and could tell the wax was softened by the change in color from white to clear. Popped them in mouth again and clamped down. More excess squeezed out. Trimmed that. Did it again. Each time they fit better. When no more excess came out they were done. Fit like a glove. Do one denture at a time.

this proved to be a shortlived fix. the wax melts at body temp. and gets squeezed out. i will try with HOT GLUE.

update may 10 2014

i forgot to update this in a timely fashion. i got my dentures relined a couple months ago. they fit great but still required a couple minor adjustments. now they fit fantastic. the dentist said gums never stop shrinking. that's a fact of life. right now i can eat ANYTHING without adhesive but i can feel them getting loose again. i can see that i'll have to resort to wax again.the tops won't need anything but i think i'll get all new bottoms next year or so.

update: july 10, 2014
my lower getting looser now. have had to resort to adhesives. tried them all. negatives for each.... until NOW! as usual i stumbled onto something that works better than all others... MINI-MARSHMALLOWS.... i put four of them evenly distributed in my lower and pop them in and bite down. excess squishes out. perfect fit. lasts longer than any commercial crapola i've tried.

UDATE sept.29 2015

i really feel sorry for people who can't adjust their own false teeth. it's true, as my dentist said, that the gums never stop shrinking. as a result the false teeth never fit right permanently. mine woke me up in pain in the middle of the night last night. i have been grinding on mine all morn.

at this moment they fit fantasticly.

i see many old people with no teeth. i have asked a few why and they replied the teeth don't fit. a friend of mine who worked in a nursing home told me all the old folks leave their teeth in the drawer for that reason.

so sad.

UPDATE aug. 2017

i am still using the first re-lines. the gum shrinkage has slowed but i still have to touch them up every couple months. otherwise they fit great.

footnote: i tried re-lining them with HOT GLUE. it seemed to work great but i was never able to find out what the glue consists of or if any were okay for consumption. so i quit doing it. 

UPDATE sept.2020

i havent had to adjust in a couple years. fit perfectly. i dont remove them at all except quick cleaning. eat anything including m&m's and grits without a problem. one tooth broke. got the piece before i swallowed it. stuck back together with JB weld. worked for a long time. broke again. just used jb weld to fill the break. still good.