This thread has helped me so much. I’ve first stumbled upon it over 2 years ago while looking for online support after getting the news from my dentist that I would need dentures.
I am a healthy 34 year old female from Washington State. I thought I would share my story in hopes of helping anyone who is going through a similar situation.
From as far back as I can remember, as early as elementary school, I was embarrassed by my crooked, crowded teeth. I begged my parents for braces, but it simply wasn’t in their budget. Somehow they managed to pay for my younger sister’s braces 6 years later. 
But, I won’t get into that on here, lol.
As the years passed throughout my teens, my teeth got worse. By the age of 19 I was in a lot of pain and needed to get my 5 (yes 5!) wisdom teeth removed. They were impacted and had been pushing and crowding both my uppers and lower teeth for years. After I had them removed, the damage had been done, and I was left with extremely crooked teeth.
My love of sweets combined with my lack of proper oral hygiene and dental anxiety took a toll on my teeth. By the time I hit my late 20’s I began loosing about a tooth a year to periodontal disease. This went on for several years while I was stuck in denial about how to approach the situation. Of course, hindsight is 20/20! I should have gotten my butt to the dentist, but lack of Healthcare and a limited budget prevented me from doing that.
Finally, in my 30’s, I decided enough was enough and I started to take hold of my dental issues. The shame and embarrassment was overwhelming. I was unable to smile in my wedding photos, or when my son was born. You simply could not find a photo of me smiling with my teeth. That photo did not exist. It’s extremely frustrating not to be able to show the emotions you are feeling inside, outwardly. I am a very positive person and extremely outgoing, despite having an embarrassing smile. Not being able to show my joy to the world with a giant grin was painful for me. I so badly wanted to smile big while playing with my son, but I was filled with too much shame.
In my mid-30’s I was hired on to a temporary receptionist position at an upscale dentist in town (ironic, right?). The doctor was so gracious to remove all 8 of my teeth that were broken off at the gum-line at a reduced cost. All my lower molars, and a few of the upper molars.
After I left that job I started going to a community health clinic and found a dentist that I loved. My first real dentist in over 15 years. She started working on the teeth that were able to be saved, and she gave me referrals to an oral surgeon to have the others removed. She also referred me to a denturist.
In the end, I was able to keep 8 of my lower front teeth, but none of my uppers were able to be saved.
I submitted a claim to my insurance for a lower partial denture and a full upper denture. And about 8 weeks later I received the approval letter back, they were going to cover the cost in full. Thank God for that! So thankful for Healthcare.
In December of 2016 I had my consultation with the oral surgeon. 13 teeth total needed to be extracted. 2 on bottom and all of my remaining uppers (11 total). Next they needed to submit another claim to my insurance in order to get the extractions approved and paid for.
A couple months later in March I received a letter back from my insurance stating that they were only going to cover the simple extractions, but not the 7 that needed surgically removed. Over the course of the next year, the oral surgeons resubmitted the claim to my insurance several more times attempting to get all of the work approved, but they still gave the same decision.
So much time went by waiting for my insurance to approve the extractions that my teeth got worse and worse. I had to go back to my dentist several times to have issues dealt with on the teeth that were waiting to be extracted, including a tooth that was so infected that she needed to pull it right there in her office. Very painful experience.
This month, almost a year after submitting the claim to my insurance, I hit my breaking point. I couldn’t go on waiting endlessly for them to approve the extractions. My teeth were in bad shape and needed out. I called the oral surgeons and decided to pay out-of-pocket for procedure. It cost me $2700 total.
Yesterday I finally had my surgery! 12 teeth were extracted. All of my remaining uppers and one of my lowers.
The way my insurance works is they cover the full cost of the permanent set of dentures, but do not cover a temporary set. So for the next couple weeks, I will unfortunately be toothless. It’s slightly emotionally jarring, but it pales in comparison to the end result.
Right now I’m going through a lot of emotions. I’m mainly feeling thankful and excited to see myself with my new smile at my wax try-in 2 weeks from now. After I approve the fit, tooth color and style at my wax try-in, it will take a little over a week for them to construct the final permanent set of dentures (a full upper and a lower partial).
The most challenging part I’m going through right now is not being able to speak well with no upper teeth, and the lingering pain from yesterday’s surgery. Having to eat soft foods isn’t much of a change for me, as I’ve been on a soft food diet for years due to my missing and cracked teeth. I’ve pretty much had to swallow my food practically whole because I had no molars left to chew, and my front teeth were cracked and not strong enough to bite with.
I must say, I don’t have the highest pain tolerance, but I am taking this amazingly well. My surgery was at 10:30am yesterday morning, and it took about an hour. My pain was about an 7 out of 10 after the anesthesia and numbing medicine wore off. It did take quite a while for the bleeding to stop. I had to change out my gauze several times. I thought I would never stop seeing blood, but suddenly 8 hours after surgery, I began to clot, the bleeding stopped and I was able to remove the gauze from my mouth. I used plain black tea bags in place of gauze for a couple hours, as the tannic acid in the tea helps encourage clotting.
After the surgery, I was sent home with prescriptions for penicillin and hydrocodone. I filled both prescriptions and started taking the antibiotics right away, however I have yet to need any of the pain medication. Yesterday I managed to get by with 6 Advil, which is pretty amazing. Today the pain is only a 1 on the scale. I was told that swelling would kick in on the 3rd day, so tomorrow I will be looking out for that and using heat compresses.
So that is my journey so far. My only regret is waiting so long to have the work done. I will update you all in a couple weeks when I get my permanent set! I can’t wait! Thank you all for your advice and support of one another!
) The dentist who put the crowns on never did root canals so there wasn’t much he could do to help me quickly. There wasn’t much to adhere anything to, but he did re-cement it until the flipper could be made. I saw him Friday and so far, it has held (knock wood). But I’m not biting into anything and only eating soft food. He hopes to have the flipper by Tuesday or Wednesday so whenever this breaks off again, he’ll be ready. At least I can start my new job tomorrow with something there. Then we start the process of figuring out what to do long term.