Tipping point

At the beginning of February, I went in for a bilateral coronoidectomy, a procedure that (it was hoped) would give me a larger oral opening and relieve the paltry 10mm space that was making it virtually impossible to eat, allow the dentist to work in my mouth, and so forth. That procedure was – for my circumstance after seven years of an ever-reducing opening – a resounding success: intraoperatively, they managed to open my mouth to 30mm before my jaw started dislocating. A few days after the operation, my opening was at 15mm, and during the followup last week, measured at 18mm. The single biggest problem is that those muscles are so unused to working that opening my mouth only using those muscles doesn’t really show the extent of the opening.

And so it was today at the dentist, whom I visited to talk about teeth. Implants are pretty much out of the question given the radiation to the jawbones and the risk of osteonecrosis (not to mention the possibility that the implants would simply fail to stay implanted and the potential of the posts to fall out, much like one of my repaired teeth that had a post buildup did), so our discussion revolved around dentures, and specifically, full or partial, and were any of the remaining teeth viable? I have six teeth remaining on the bottom; those all need to go, as they are either lose and in danger of snapping off, or they have recurrent cavities around the edges of where the crowns have been placed. On top, I have ten teeth left, all of which are in some degree of decay, but all but one of which are actually in fairly good shape, considering.

But, we’ve reached the tipping point on the tooth business, and instead of fighting a losing battle for the top teeth, which may have supported a partial denture but which would eventually have to come out anyway and thus result in the requirement to do a full denture, I’ve decided to go ahead and bit the bullet (so to speak) and have the rest of the teeth extracted. Since all my extractions are things I have to pay for myself, as I have no dental insurance, I’m hoping my oral surgeon will cut me a deal.

Today they also did impressions at the dentist’s office, an adventure in and of itself, since my opening is wider, but not as wide as a normal person’s, and the usual impression trays were still not fitting into my face. A little wrangling and adjusting/shaving down some trays, and away we went, managing to get all the impressions done on the first try each. Wondrous!

In about ten days or so, I’ll be heading off to have the teeth pulled and then to the dentist post-extraction to fit the pliable membranes under temporary dentures while the bones heal and my mouth reshapes itself. From there: hard plates, and a real full mouth of teeth for the first time in over half a decade. It should do wonders for my nutrition, which has taken quite a hit as more and more teeth have been yanked.

Overall: although I’d have preferred not to have been doing all this during the spring, as it’s put me behind on my gardening work, it’s still movement in the right direction to get back to some semblance of normality. Or as normal as things can be, anyway.