Teeth, false teeth or dentures

Call them what you like but for the more mature of us, they can be part of our lives. I was eighteen when I got my first set, although it wasn't a set only the top ones. Living in a small country area we did not have a dentist and my teeth were terrible, probably due a lot to me not looking after them but genes and other things also came into play I think (or it that just me not wanting to take the whole blame.) Had to travel over an hour to dentist visits.

Anyway at eighteen not long before my wedding I had false top teeth, wedding photos showed me with actual teeth! I had spent many years smiling with my lips closed as I didn't want to show my teeth. At age twenty three, my bottom teeth were crumbling and shattering as it was a trip to hospital to get the remaining ones out and false teeth put in, now I had a full set.

Never had much problem with my false teeth until about seven or eight years ago, while chatting with a friend and having a few wines, I needed to go to the little girls room, did what I needed to do and flushed and was found on the floor asleep. Hummm, bottom teeth were nowhere around.

A quick trip to the dentist to plead my case as we were going back to China in ten days time for another five months. Luckily for me, they came thru, two weeks without a bottom set of teeth was not fun.

Move forward to last year and I noticed that it was a bit hard to chew on one side, a close inspection of my teeth revealed that they were terribly worn on one side, so I decided that when we got home, I needed to replace them. I worked out that they were over thirty (30) years old!

I knew that it was going to be expensive so I still put it off and off and off, eight months in fact until I realized that I could see some of the pink gum thru the teeth. The month of March has seen me at the dentists, for consultations, quotes, fixings and adjustments. The bill wasn't as bad as I had imagined, $850 for the top ones or $1650 for both. (I had been thinking two or three thousand!) Dentist agreed with me that the bottom ones were fine although he did tell me several times that it would be better to get them to fit perfectly if I did get both done at once. The frugal part of me decided that I didn't need to spend the extra money as there was nothing wrong with the bottom set.

Wednesday, I walked out with my new teeth, which seems a little strange, therebeing more there than there used to be and my voice sounds different but so far no sore spots, the cost includes three visits for adjustments if required.

New teeth! I chose only a lighter shade than the old ones, didn't want to go white white! Advised not to eat crusty beard or grilled steak for a few days to allow the new teeth to "seat in" but so far so good.