This morning went to the regular dentist to have the dentures checked and adjusted a bit. Learned how to take them out and to put them back in. Why is it that everything is always easy when the expert who can help you is standing right there? So off I went through my day confident that this evening I would be able to pop those suckers out, clean them and pop them back in no problem... WHAT was I thinking?!?!
On a side note, the Dentist and his staff were all amazed at how well I was doing. I am functioning, speaking reasonably well and not the quivering mass of jello that I expected myself to be. DH was talking to the Tech, they agreed that one of the possible explanations is simply that the pain I was living with prior to the extractions was so much worse than the pain from the extractions and the dentures themselves. The result being that the extraction recovery is not so bad for me. Fingers crossed that it keeps going that way. I'm having more and more bad bouts as time goes on. But...more of that to come.
So there I stand in the bathroom with my little denture bath and my denture brush and my fizzy tablet thingie realizing that I have absolutely NO IDEA what to do with all of this stuff. I gather up all my mouth rinsing stuff and stand there perplexed.
Did you know that there really is not a lot of information out on the internet about the little things regarding denture care? Proper use of the denture brush for example. Or do the dentures go into the bath with the teeth up (and therefor away) from direct contact with the fizzy tablet fizz or teeth down putting the underside (that part that goes against your gums and where all the protective soft stuff is at the moment...the stuff I don't want to "fizz away") further away from the fizzing? SIGH Or how about does one need both denture paste 9the denture version of toothpaste) AND the fizzy things or just one or the other?
So anyway, there I am poised at the sink with my 4 different kinds of post surgical mouth rinses, my denture bath prepared and ready (thanks to help from my daughter reading the directions for me...I had read them already myself, several times, but kept forgetting what it said. Now to pull the teeth out of the mouth. Just like I did at the dentist's office.
Ready, set, Dang teeth are slippery when they're wet from saliva! Not easy little buggers to grab a hold of! Need to rock the uppers forward a tiny bit like a hings toward the front of the mouth to get them out. Now exactly how am I supposed to achieve this feat? I eventually figured out that if I used my tongue to help I could break the suction and get them out! Rinse well and place into the denture bath!
Now for the partials on the lower... Simply push up, gently, on the part of the appliance on the side behind my canine teeth. Pushing up gently, and little less gently...they're not moving! I'm starting to panic! (Really ridiculous things are flashing through my mind now - What if I can NEVER get them out!?!? This is going to be very bad for the healing!) Calm down, take several deep cleansing breaths (do NOT look in the mirror, I look SO STRANGE all swollen and with no upper teeth!). Try again, and again, okay this is getting PAINFUL! After several more attempts I finally manage to get them out, rinsed and into the bath. Now remember you still have teeth on the bottom jaw so don't let the remaining teeth tear into the gums up top. SO much to remember!
WOOHOO! Add my warm water to the bath to cover the teeth and watch it start to fizz. Now onto my mouth rinses at about 30 seconds each. Ewww, when I allow the stuff to dribble out of my mouth I find that stitches have come out! NO!!!! I just got those stitches yesterday...well, maybe they are not stitched, maybe they're little bits of cotton from the procedure the day before. About three little clumps of cotton. Probably, I assume, I pulled them out with all the failed attempts to get the blasted teeth out. Oh NO! Well, go on with what I'm doing. It's after 10P and nothing can be done about it right now. The important thing at this moment is to do all my rinses and clean my teeth and get them back in my mouth. Especially important for my big plastic bandages to get back in there if I've ripped out stitches!!! The teeth are to soak for about 15 minutes. My timer went off before I finished with all of my rinses. I did a LOT of warm saltwater rinses! LOL
My Pixie comes in and very gently asks if I have my teeth out. I nod and lisp that my teeth are out (extremely difficult to say without teeth BTW). My wonderful child looks at me with eyes filled with curiosity and asks "So, do you look like a warthog?" I attempted to smile, I have no idea if it worked or not...probably pretty gruesome in all reality (my appearance trying to smile...nodded and asked if she wanted to see Mommy Warthog. She did. So I jutted out my lower jaw and showed my little warthog teeth. She smiled, thanked me for showing her, gave me a kiss on the shoulder and stroked my back saying "poor mommy". She knew I was hurting.
So now we "brush our teeth" and rinse, rinse, rinse them. Now we pop them back into our mouth. Hinge maneuver in reverse for the upper, ouch! Sore spot on the gum! But they're in! Now for the lower. Okay, line them up so that the remaining natural teeth are in the gaps and press down, and a little toward he back of my mouth, and they will go right into place. MAJOR OUCH! Man this hurts! I must be really swollen. They simply refuse to stop hurting (the ouch on the uppers has stopped hours ago and the lowers show NO sigh of stopping. Try to rest!!!
Pixie went to bed hours earlier (right after the Mommy Warthog thing) and she's been trying to cough up something off and on for hours...okay days...but that's neither here nor there. Off she goes into another violent coughing fit. This one so protracted that now she's retching. THAT'S IT! We're going to the ER, I cannot take anymore of this. So she and I (along with my icepack for my face) head off to the ER. She's fine BTW! We're doing everything right for her. However,while we are endlessly waiting for the XRay tech, and my icepack has given up it's last bit of cold...anyway I'm sitting there feeling every point of pain and it dawns on me that the appliance was not uncomfortable before I took it out. I must have put it in wrong. OH Just Peachy! NOW I want out of the ER more than usual. I want to, No NEED to get home to try to fix this situation.
We finally roll home a little after 5 a.m. and I'm back in trying to wrestle the lower teeth out of my mouth again. Finally get them out. Put them in water, get a new ice Pack as I am now so swollen I'm looking like I did right after the surgery again. Let the cold work it's miracles for about a half an hour and try again with the partial. I set in in there and, gently, push down and get it firmly back into the same position I had it in all night. DRAT! So I start feeling around in there and cannot for the life of me figure out how to get it the rest of the way down. However my investigations continued along with attempts with different pressures in different spots around the mouth (always along the sides of the partial) then it shifted, ever so slightly and there was a SNAP sound along with searing pain. Somehow ever the mayday alarms going off in my head because of the pain that little voice of reason says "that cannot be a good sound". So I, very gently, start feeling around in my mouth, expecting to find a broken appliance. But there was no broken denture...then my mind offered up my dental visit earlier that day and Doc saying that the lower will "SNAP" into place. Ohhhhhhhhhhh!
Now the teeth are in, both properly this time, and the pain dies down significantly!
and now...I must rest. I will continue my saga another time.
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