My Mom grinds her teeth in her sleep.. now at age 73 the dentist recommended pulling all her teeth and putting in snap on dentures. Not sure she will be happy with that but right now her teeth are chipped, worn down, a lot missing. The dentist said she had a few cavities and the teeth are bad. She said yes to the procedure and is now having second thoughts. It will take about 6 months till the full procedure is done. They use dentures right away as a band aide while your gums heal. I don't know what to do encourage or discourage her?
1. Moms health. Diabetes, smoking, etc make it more likely that an implant will fail.
2. Moms mental capacity. This process is a big change and requires adaptation and patience on her part. How does she deal with change? Does she have dementia?
3. Finances. Make sure you understand all the charges up front. What is included now and what might be a future charge.
4. Ease of access and transportation to the dental office. This process involves many appointments when everything goes well, even more when slight adjustments are needed along the way.
i dont mean to sound discouraging. It could be a great answer for her! Just be aware of what is ahead.
(I am a retired dental hygienist of 35 years).
But it is a very extensive and expensive plan. The cavities definitely need to be fixed. But a mouth guard to prevent grinding will save the teeth from further damage, be much less expensive and have no long recuperation time.
Before deciding to remove all her teeth I would definitely seek a second opinion.
Good luck to you both.
The plus to having the work done now is that you know going forward her teeth are only going to get worse and as we age, change becomes harder to adapt to. If she has this done now, the hope would be that she will be well used to them by the time she starts the dementia slide.
the remaining top 10 teeth and he placed a temporary plate that day. It took 6 months before all the healing and swelling was down then i got my permanent top denture. After about one month of the extractions i had a lot more energy and felt physically better than i had in many years. Once my bad teeth were pulled and all the infection cleared i was a new person, and i finally was able to truly smile. I have no regrets....
the only advice i have, is get a second opinion because unless she can clear all the infection from her mouth, it can case multiple health issues including heart problems. Sending healing blessings to yall during this difficult time💖
I would get a second or third opinion. If this one dentist is going to do all the work himself I would be concerned. It just isn't done that way now. That is why we have all those specialists.
Yes it will alter her appearance when she is lacking dentures. My DH had to get a new set of dentures, and looked like a parrot for a fortnight while he was without. He self-isolated back then, for vanity (justified at age 65).
For a few years I used a dentist who seemed always seemed to be finding something very expensive to do. I got unhappy, particularly when he did not mention the two new crowns he had suggested at the previous consultation, and found a new dentist. Is yours the same dentist who didn’t give her a mouth guard earlier? I would now always get a second opinion before going ahead with very very expensive treatment.
Bruxism, is it called..? Anyway - what other options has she been offered? Has she tried the whole gamut of gum guards and retainers and all the other gadgets?
I had one tooth replaced and even with good insurance it cost me nearly $2000, months of pain while it healed. I would do it again but it was very costly and time consuming with a root canal, extraction, implant, healing, getting the cap made, then getting the cap fitted. In all one tooth took 9 visits to 3 different dentists!
Which makes me question the financial aspect of this, is all of this done by one dentist? My regular dentist would not do anything but the cap, he said he would rather send me to specialists for most of the work, so he had no financial stake in the decision.