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so my dentist had to give me the bad news - I am going to need dentures, as my teeth are causing too many issues.
I cant help feeling like a failure. If I could have overcome my tendency to skip on my self care, its possible I could have avoided this.
ah, well.
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Genetics
It’s often just genetics, Dot. Which is to say: not your fault.
My dad had great teeth; my mom’s needed constant work. Fillings, root canals, the whole catastrophe. I got Dad’s teeth; my sister got my mom’s. Hers have been trouble her whole life, and she takes great care with them. I’m nowhere near as good with dental hygiene, but I’ve largely skated by.
— Emma
Proud denture wearer
I'm a proud denture wearer. When I was young, I was taught about the necessity of brushing my teeth but no one mentioned flossing. It wasn't until I was a young adult that I understood that flossing was a necessary part of dental care.
By then I had developed a pretty serious case of gingivitis. From there it was an uphill battle to keep it in check. There was no hope of curing it. Armed with a water pick and using a fifty/fifty mix of water and hydrogen peroxide I managed to hold off tooth loss for about 15 years.
Finally, less than a month after having the oral hygienist clean my teeth and the dentist redoing a couple of fillings after a through exam, I was eating some peanuts and broke a molar. I had gotten a gum line cavity that undermined a filling all the way across the tooth in that short time.
I decided then (age 46) to give up trying to save my teeth. I found a denturist and went in for a consult. He advised me to have my teeth removed by a dental surgeon and referred me to a good one. He pulled 26 teeth, laid open my gums and scraped the bone to clear the plaque and recommended I wait for a month to have impressions so that the swelling in my gums would go down.
I waited and had my impressions done. The denturist did a good job. I'm still wearing my original set with no need for any adhesive. I can eat corn on the cob and fresh apples with ease. Waiting a month for the swelling to go down made for an excellent fit that is still good 32 years later.
I advise everyone to do as I did and avoid same day impressions. My daughter got dentures a couple of years ago and didn't want to go without teeth. She has needed adhesive from day one; even after having her dentures relined.
Trust me, you can eat pretty much anything you want except perhaps raw carrots and celery, not that I'm prone to eating such things. You just have to cut your meat in small enough pieces that you can swallow it without chewing. Good advise even if you have good teeth. (I at pork chops that way.)
I'm told that with all that time my dentures really should be replaced. I paid $400 for uppers and lower total. (Not counting the $1700 to the surgeon.) I got a quote from another denturist recently and the cost to replace them would be $2400 for the dentures alone. As long as I can eat what I want without problems, I'll continue to use what I've got.
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann
Flossing
My difficulty had been that the gaps between my teeth were so tight that flossing with traditional roll dental floss was pretty much a non-starter.
So I did without flossing until my fifties when I finally was tired of weird decay issues and gum recession due to the those inter-teeth spaces not being cleaned and found the Listerine UltraClean flosser. The small head allowed me far easier access to back teeth where I ultimately needed a crown because of an oddly positioned carie that cannot be easily filled in.
The other thing I've discovered is that since I use an Oral B mechanical brush with its relatively small brush heads, I was not getting enough Fluoride from my brushing so I've upped the amount of toothpase on the brush by 5 fold, piling it on.
I spend a good amount of time brushing so the Fluoride has time to penetrate. Ideally it should be like 30 minutes to get optimum effect and I think I only let it soak for 20 minutes or so between my two brushings a day.
All in all, I spend like about 25 minutes a day on my dental care which is a lot I admit but at the last dental checkup, the dental hygenist praised me for how little she had to do as I had kept my teeth to a very high standard.
My partner who had passed also at one point needed all her teeth removed due to deep infection. She barely brushed and her alcoholish told her that alcohol kills germs so it should prevent gingivitis. Wrong. Alcohol hurts gum tissue leading to more possibility of infection and since she did not brush much due to her complaining that toothpaste made her gag, her fate was sealed. Her experience with denture fitting was not good though and she had trouble with them till the day she died.
Edit: I think the prevention of gingivitis is critical as it leads to gum tissue separating from the tooth surface, providing openings for bacteria to go deep, leading to infections. I experienced 3 infections in my 30s and 40s, the last one striking at the most inopportune time when I was on business travel in a foreign country whose population generally did not speak English and had to find a dentist to give me a prescription to take to a similarly non-English speaking pharmacy to fill. I was a bit of an adventure.
TLDR - Take the damn time to care for your teeth! (please pardon the expletive)
no, No, and CAFO === !!! NO !!! ===
=== Not === you.
Your teeth.
"Failing teeth" are not a reflection on you, or your character, or your personality, or your worth as a person.
---
Some years back, when I had been vegan for some 8 years, I killed a cow. Maybe two. In a bloody ritual that spilled over 2 liters of blood 'at my end', I had her heart ripped out, cut up, and some her heart-pieces were sewn into my own heart.
Was I a failure as a vegan, or as a person, then or now?
Would 'better care' have avoided the problem? No.
The doctor checking me out for health for my first job (40 years prior), said "There is something strange here." In bed, both Wives spooned me, with an arm across my chest. "Honey, there's something strange here." I did have it checked out. Both times. By major hospitals. One time included a wear-at-home heart monitor.
Self-care? None of my heart problems were/are diet related. And, in my opinion, exercise would have =accelerated= my mitral valve deterioration.
---
To 'flip' and rephrase what Shakespeare had Julius Caesar say:
The faults, dear Dorothy, are in our stars, and =not= in ourselves, because we are mortal beings.
===
Also, please look into "dental implants". Check reputable sources such as your dentist, and a dental surgeon or two, and Wikipedia, and Dental Associations.
=Do not= watch videos of same.
And don't bother much with the random fools you'll find on the internet (like me.)
---
CAFO: Confined Animal Feeding Operation. To a vegan, a curse-word immeasurably stronger than the "F-bomb."
My Son Is A Dentist
Well, an endodontist these days, but he says that the root cause (yuk, yuk!) of the problem is that teeth are only designed to last seventy years. Up to that limit how you take care of them is vital. If you have fluoridated water supplies that is great. The other main ingredient is early care. Dental treatment is free (or used to be) under the UK's NHS up to the age of 21, so the Brits have far fewer dental problems than many other countries.
The Australian Dental Association campaigned vigorously to have dental care excluded from our basic national health scheme and succeeded. Today, ordinary people face the consequences of that 'victory'.
Both my mum and my dad needed full dentures by the time they were fifty, back in the 1940s and 1950s. I am lucky. At 82 I have lost two wisdom teeth (so that's why I'm dumb!) and one other due to an accident.
My oldest sister
My oldest sister was a dental hygiene fanatic. She brushed after every meal and often after between meal snacks. She carried a travel toothbrush and a small tube of toothpaste in her purse just for that purpose. As near as I can tell, she did everything right but still needed full dentures by the time she was 24.
My brother speculated that all that brushing wore away the enamel and made her susceptible to cavities. I have no idea if that's even possible. But I do remember that there used to be a toothpaste on the market that had an abrasive element to it and I used it to polish the scratches out of my glasses. It worked pretty well, so maybe that was the toothpaste she used and she did wear away the enamel?
Hugs
Patricia
Happiness is being all dressed up and HAVING some place to go.
Semper in femineo gerunt
Ich bin ein femininer Mann