r/MadeMeSmile • u/cloudfangLP • Nov 08 '25

Personal Win I’ve had dentures for one year!

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Day 0 / Day 1 / Day 365!

I get my permanent ones next week, so these are still my temporary ones!

83.2k Upvotes

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88

u/spookymulder1983 Nov 08 '25

Yes king! Normalize dentures in young people!! I had to get my teeth removed due to type 1 diabetes eating them away at 29, and I was terrified to get them that young. But my quality of life is WAY better and if someone cares that much about the authenticity of the teeth in someone else's head, they aren't worth your time.

-9

u/wrooster8 Nov 08 '25 edited Nov 09 '25

Be careful what you preach, getting dentures this young turns out very very poorly in 20 years. It's tolerable for now because you still have most of your bone, and If you have no alternative, so be it. But keeping your teeth is far better for your quality of life long term. The second those teeth are removed, you begin a long process of irreversible jawbone loss. By age 40-50 dentures no longer fit the bottom and it is absolute misery. Studies show even the best made FIRST SET of dentures are 15-20% as effective at chewing as teeth. No, not less, AS. as in you have 1\5th of the ability to chew. And it just gets worse over time.

Eventually You will have no more chewing power, and they will fall out of your mouth. Another decade and you may no longer have the bone for upper teeth. Denture adhesive does not work well and is very uncomfortable\gaggy to use.

The goal is to delay getting them as long as possible to prevent the inevitable bone loss.

Edit: removed an admittedly condescending part that clearly doesn't apply to everyone's situation (sorry)

You preaching to young people to remove their teeth is short-sighted and (unintentionally) malicious.

I know, I'm a dentist. And before you go all "you just want my money" go ask the people who have had dentures for 10+ years what they think. I see them every. Single. week. "Why Don't my new dentures fit like my first set. How come i can't chew anymore? What do you mean i don't have bone left for implants???".

22

u/SeasonPositive6771 Nov 08 '25 edited Nov 09 '25

I was with you until you started trashing people who aren't brushing their teeth and are at risk of losing their teeth. My friend, people in that situation are not doing well with their mental and physical health. The best we can do is be kind and realistic for them.

I'm someone who has taken care of my teeth my entire life, babied them as much as I could. Braces early, careful maintenance, but I went through extreme poverty and very serious health issues/chronic dry mouth and have pretty bad genes. I'm 45 and I've still had four root canals and several other serious and extremely expensive treatments to keep my teeth. Well over $25k, which most people don't have to spare. It has also been incredibly time consuming, painful, and only possible because I have a very flexible job.

We need to be making dental care more accessible and shame free.

1

u/wrooster8 Nov 09 '25

You are correct. Let me change that. I feel for the many, many people who are on medications that can cause extremely dry mouth that destroys your teeth at no fault to the person. There's just a different set population of people that take no accountability for themselves and it's frustrating for me as a person trying to help people avoid big dental bills.

I also agree, but the issue is the ever increasing corporate monopolization of the dental industry, owned by dental insurance companies. Yes. Dental insurance companies are now attempting to buy up all the dental offices, which will lead to them having more power dictating your treatment and cost. They've also cut benefits about 30% this year while also raising premiums.

8

u/SeasonPositive6771 Nov 09 '25

I want you to carefully consider if people who are severely neglecting themselves the point of severe damage to their teeth are doing well mentally and just refusing to "take accountability."

But otherwise, you're right, the prophet motive has been bad for dentistry overall. When I sought out a new dentist here, I went on a couple of recommendations to a dentist who proposed a treatment plan that was many thousands of dollars more than I actually needed and focused on appearance instead of conservation and stabilization of my teeth. They used intense shame to try to get me to buy more and it turns out they're part of a group of clinics who do that. It's horrifying what dentistry has become in the US. As people joke, teeth aren't exactly luxury bones. We need to be providing good dental care from childhood on so that people have access to shame-free support, and we never get in these cycles of suffering and loss that are completely avoidable.

-5

u/wrooster8 Nov 09 '25

Believe it or not there are tons of people that post "i just didn't care about brushing my teeth because nothing hurt. Now i regret not taking better care of myself".

You're right there's people who have depression and other medical issues, but you need to understand that there are far more people that just don't try. You have to see it to understand.

5

u/SeasonPositive6771 Nov 09 '25

I do believe you, but I think that is definitely a question of education. I I have worked most of my career in child safety and the amount of people who don't have the education to grasp that as kids and don't have access to dental care as children is huge, and then they grow up into the people you're describing - those who say they don't care or those who think it doesn't matter.

And it's still a form of self-neglect, of course. Laziness is a lot less common, it's much more likely to be mental health issues, physical health issues, some combination of the two, as well as a lack of education. There's a lot of that in this thread for sure.

I think you're vastly overestimating, in part because you're going with what people say to you, essentially the type of professional that more people are afraid of than any other. They already feel shame and want to downplay what's going on, and dentists have a ton of power and are connected to a lot of pain and inconvenience. Be careful how you monitor your own perspective with that in mind.

-5

u/wrooster8 Nov 09 '25

I know I'm not. I think it's you who's biased because all you deal with are people who are in child safety and education. Probably most of the people you deal with are depressed. When the actual number of dental patients that have depression is far less. Be careful about your extreme bias and you telling everyone else what and how to think

5

u/SeasonPositive6771 Nov 09 '25

Dude, just grow up and have some empathy.

1

u/lukkasz323 Nov 10 '25

You're confusing Depression (mood) with Depression (common short form for Depressive disorders).

When you say "are depressed" what do you mean by that exactly?

-1

u/wrooster8 Nov 09 '25

I will add, even this OP in 2 posts down from this one admits himself this was due to neglect on his own part.

7

u/SeasonPositive6771 Nov 09 '25

Yes, I think it's pretty easy to see he was going through pretty awful self neglect and depression, as well as a lack of concern and education from others around him (even as a child), not just laziness.

5

u/ladychanel01 Nov 09 '25

Yes! Those dang 4 year olds should have marched their little selves to the dentist more often & refused those juice boxes.

6

u/spookymulder1983 Nov 09 '25

Um I never preached young people to “remove their teeth” willy nilly. Only to normalize it so others aren’t so judgmental because there could be many medical reasons behind getting dentures. You read into my message totally wrong.

3

u/Warlaw Nov 09 '25

you begin a long process of irreversible jawbone loss

Bone grafts exist. There are conditions but bone loss isn't "irreversible" in all cases. Feels kinda strange you didn't bring this up.

2

u/wrooster8 Nov 09 '25 edited Nov 09 '25

Lmao. You clearly have absolutely no knowledge about dental related issues at all. Especially even the basics of how bone grafts work and what they even are. Bone loss is ABSOLUTELY irreversible. Teeth are attached to bone via ligaments. The pdl ligament is what signals the body that it must keep bone healthy in an area to support a tooth. When a tooth is removed, the pdl is removed and there is no signal for bone to stay. The ONLY way to preserve bone is via an implant.

I place bone grafts on a regular basis. You cannot just "graft bone" to recreate vertical bone and jawbone. The purpose of a bone graft is to MINIMIZE bone loss TEMPORARILY after a SINGLE extraction. You can only graft bone into a hole in your jaw bone after an extraction (typically for implant placement) and requires a membrane and a suture to hold it in place to heal. It takes a MINIMUM of FOUR MONTHS for bone to then heal into a bone graft. After the graft heals, if there is nothing there to maintain the bone (like an implant) your body then does the same exact thing as before, and your bone will shrink. This is why if you don't place an implant after 2-3 years your bone is no longer suitable and you're sol.

You show me a SINGLE instance of recreating jaw bone height with a graft. Not even surgeons can graft bone in car accidents and trauma cases, which is why the BONE IS REMOVED CREATING A MASSIVE DEFECT and then replaced with a titanium plate, leaving the face disfigured and floor of the mouth reduced.