Today, I sit here grinding my teeth, literally. As you may know if you’ve read here over time, I was on my way into dental implants late 2010 only to have that process brought to an abrupt halt by an unexpected layoff. Currently, I remain “endentured” (chuckle) as I wait for timing and finances to resume equilibrium. In the meantime, as part of the regular upkeep of such things, it was time to see about a reline of the dentures.
A reline is when they recast the forms for both arches (using the denture itself as a guide) and then take the whole thing to the lab and recast them. The outcome is supposed to be increased comfort, a better fit, and of course, realignment of the bite seat. Since I’ve lost over 100 pounds since I got them, it was strongly recommended that I see to it soon as delays could result in inflammation of the bone and tissue (not happy making). So… I took my lunch yesterday to have the forms cast and spent yesterday afternoon and evening feeling quite the toothless wonder as I waited for them to be ready today.
I just got back from lunch, during which I went to pick them up. Not only are they not correctly relined, they are actually so far out of alignment that I am (as previously mentioned) grinding them just to keep them in place… until I can go back again, on Tuesday, to redo the entire process and hope for a more normalized outcome. I’ll tell you right now… you simply do not appreciate having healthy teeth until you no longer do, and you definitely do not appreciate a solid set of dentures until you wind up with a pair that are anything but so.
Imagine that your jaw is roughly 1/4 to 1/2 inch out of alignment; that, when you attempt to close your mouth, you have to “go slowly” or you’ll bite your cheek, lip, or tongue. Imagine that trying to chew anything harder than bread is actually painful. Now imagine that you can (a) take your entire upper and lower arches of teeth out… but that (b) trying to put them back in is like attempting to wrestle a piece of rigid plastic over an edge that has not give AND actually feels pain (i.e., a dental ridge of bone and gum).
“Best of all”… wearing them creates sore spots on the ridges that become increasing inflamed and sore… but you HAVE to wear them because those sore spots are the only way the dentist will know what areas to focus upon when attempting the next mark up of the forms for reline.
Oh yeah, bah-bee, I’m just having a ball. (wry grin)
No, actually, I’m sitting here grousing my head off to this “page” but, in the background, I am sitting here both being very thankful that I have had such a good set of prosthetic arches until now… and giving serious thought to continuing to make that ridiculous drive south to have them relined CORRECTLY should the office near my current residence prove unable to get this right the “next go round”.
So I suppose you could say I appreciate the discomfort of this moment because it is highlighting how amazing and skillful my former dentist and his lab are… and I am rapidly developing an appreciation not only for something I have largely taken for granted these last two years, but also for the notion of (perhaps soon) being able to finish out the implant process so this is never something I have to again deal with in life.
I hope your holiday weekend is splendid and involved no teeth-gritting of any sort. (hug)