Tomorrow I have a post-op/pre-op appointment at Truman Maxillofacial Surgery. When this odyssey began I had initially set up 3 extraction appointments. When I arrived for the first appointment I told them to do as much as they could and maybe I would not need the additional appointments. They said they thought they could do it all in one go. Unfortunately, they were not able to finish removing the tori from my lower left inner jaw. The bleeding and swelling were too much to allow them to complete the task. I went back several times to say that a shelf of bone remained and that I anticipated it would cause problems when the dentures were made. They said that they required a detailed referral from my denture provider including technical specifications.
I expressed my concern to Dr. Goodman. He thought we might be able to work around the remaining bone. Not so lucky. Now whenever I try to chew food, the dentures grind along the shelf of bone and rapidly becomes too painful to even want to leave the dentures in my mouth. At my last appointment with him he acknowledged that surgery was the only fix and gave me a non-detailed referral back to TMC.
When I called TMC I alerted them to the anticipated issue of the referral letter not containing enough details. They kindly said to bring in the letter and that they would contact him to get clarification if needed. I will need to sign releases etcetera.
I am blogging about this phase because I want anyone going through a similar situation to know that being persistent is not rude. I have heard it said that for every decade a person has been alive it takes a week to get accustomed to prosthetic dental devices. So the older you are when you begin the process the longer it will take to get used to your dentures. I am not frustrated or angry that it is taking this long to get it right. I decided before I began that "persistence pays" needed to be my mantra throughout this process. You should too. Am I feeling a bit impatient? YES! I wanna eat a sammich, dammit! Do I blame or hold anger for any of the fine folks helping me get my smile back? Hellz no!!! No one has tried to make me feel guilty or bad for needing dentures at such a young age. They have been very understanding that a confluence of bad genes, bad dentist, poverty and coca-cola consumption has led me to where I am.
Good luck to anyone else who is facing this issue. Feel free to ask me anything!
I expressed my concern to Dr. Goodman. He thought we might be able to work around the remaining bone. Not so lucky. Now whenever I try to chew food, the dentures grind along the shelf of bone and rapidly becomes too painful to even want to leave the dentures in my mouth. At my last appointment with him he acknowledged that surgery was the only fix and gave me a non-detailed referral back to TMC.
When I called TMC I alerted them to the anticipated issue of the referral letter not containing enough details. They kindly said to bring in the letter and that they would contact him to get clarification if needed. I will need to sign releases etcetera.
I am blogging about this phase because I want anyone going through a similar situation to know that being persistent is not rude. I have heard it said that for every decade a person has been alive it takes a week to get accustomed to prosthetic dental devices. So the older you are when you begin the process the longer it will take to get used to your dentures. I am not frustrated or angry that it is taking this long to get it right. I decided before I began that "persistence pays" needed to be my mantra throughout this process. You should too. Am I feeling a bit impatient? YES! I wanna eat a sammich, dammit! Do I blame or hold anger for any of the fine folks helping me get my smile back? Hellz no!!! No one has tried to make me feel guilty or bad for needing dentures at such a young age. They have been very understanding that a confluence of bad genes, bad dentist, poverty and coca-cola consumption has led me to where I am.
Good luck to anyone else who is facing this issue. Feel free to ask me anything!
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