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Bruce, if it weren't for my particular sort of TMJ, I'd already have a lower denture! My upper teeth are falling apart much more slowly than my lowers. Unfortunately, Medicaid says I can only have dentures redone once a decade, while the lower partial I had made like 3 years ago no longer allows my mouth to close and no longer sits flush on where my molars used to be--it barely touches my jaw on either side in that area, and sticking it down with denture glue won't help.
My dentist had a light-bulb-goes-on moment probably 5 years back. It was March, and I'd been in for a bunch of minor fillings & such the previous November. I told him he needed to X-Ray my mouth again, and he said the November images would do fine. I pushed and since I pay him out of pocket he caved.
TEN new cavities in five months. On a relatively low-sugar diet. TEN. The look on his face...I even took a photo of the X-Ray on the lightboard to show to my family.
My mom was like "Yup, you got my teeth." She currently has to have the last 2 remaining lowers extracted (in 2 weeks) as both are abscessed, and she just discovered that someone has somehow evaded a triple-count process at her pharmacy and has been skimming her pain meds. There are 20 less in the bottle than it was supposed to have. I guess more than just weak teeth runs in the family! She's got a pain med crisis in a state that despises elderly women (she's 68) AND pain medication use (she has osteo and rheumatoid arthritis, a Z-shaped lumbar spine with massive arthritis, lumbar scoliosis, fibromyalgia, an unrepaired torn rotator cuff, no ACL in one knee, and a half dozen or so other incurable pain sources). I've got viral laryngitis and no guarantee that the 2 runs of antibiotic have actually worked. I owe my dentist like $1500 and am deathly afraid that the next infection 'hot spot' in my mouth is under the crowned root canal he just had to fix in July because it popped entirely out of my jaw, post and all, while he was working on a different tooth entirely.
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