Mum got to have teeth out.

[Redheadedstepchild]

Hi, my mum is 84 and has been to see NHS dentist today. Well, it was a centre for student dentists that offers free treatment as obviously they are still learning.

Apparently, the private dentist has been stringing her along a bit (a lot) and infection has set in under some bridgework and gone into the bone. She has to go into hospital and have all her top teeth out. Maybe some of the bottom ones can be saved.

She's absolutely distraught.

Does this sound right to you? What can I say to her? Has anyone experienced similar? Are dentures better these days than they used to be? Should she get a second opinion? Thanks in advance everyone x.

Thankyou, I'm so relieved. There was the emotional trauma, of course but I did also think that having all her teeth out at once might lead to real physical complications.

Y'know, like the old story that is actually quite real, "They were perfectly fine until they broke their hip."

If your mum ever does need dentures there’s the option of all on 4 ( private) with dentures placed on implants, so no teeth in a glass beside her bed! I’m late seventies never had good teeth, due to lack of care as a child, but doing my best to maintain them now, but it is expensive with private dentistry. There’s no way the NHS dentist would have done all this work on my teeth. I’ll fight to not have dentures. Bridges, crowns , possibly implants in the future- I’ll take what works. Fortunately my dentist doesn’t push for work to be done, and has been able to save a couple of teeth that others insisted would have to come out. One such tooth was crowned a few years ago, it was expected to only last a couple of years- it’s lasted 9 so far!

Thankyou. Aren't teeth a fundamental design flaw in humans? Nothing but trouble from cradle to grave. I don't know anyone who has ever said to me, "My teeth just sit there and do their job."

Why can’t we be like some other species where teeth just regrow?

Or have three different sets of teeth in reserve like a shark? Or have no teeth at all like a bird and just have a beak instead? I bloody hate teeth.

Hello, for anybody still interested. Mum's been back to the NHS dentist today at the hospital. The latest thing is that they are going to seal up the roots of the tooth that had a bridge on it with white filling amalgam and she's going to have to live with a bit of a gap.

If I've understood her properly.

Thanks for the update OP. I posted up thread about my MIL. Her situation still hasn't changed. She's quite happy with how things are.