Good luck!

if I can get the "kittens" fixed I will kick in a small amount also!

it's wonderful of you to take care of them

to my bulging Charge Card. But they are done. Now I have to find them a home and figure out how to pay off about $500 dollars on them from all shots, tests and food and litter and two dog kennels (they were $103 each).

?

thanks for the k&rs, guys.

visited a dental school? Often much cheaper!

is where she will be having the work done.

Menopause brain here, thanks!

I'm so broke, right now. But, I'll keep this in mind if I find some extra cash laying around after I pay bills this week.

I'm close to the very same situation, so I feel her pain.

.. my teeth are about gone.. got one left in front on the uppers, a few in front on the lower and the back.. like holiow tree stumps.. rest have broken off below the gum line. no insurance, no dental school.. plenty of pain tho. I make do. But good luck to her, she has a path.

thank you for the good thought and i'm sending some to you

i'm sorry you're in a similar situation. dental distress is so horrible and harmful. my best to you.

of help. Who knows when we will need it. God bless you and GOD BLESS WISHADOO!

and i'll through in a bless du, as well.

"google"san luis rio colorado sonora dentist

San Luis is right across the border from Yuma,AZ.

The Dentists are all great.They do work for thousands of Americans every year.

I went to a local dentist here in North Georgia because I will be needing upper and lower dentures very soon. The price quoted me was $3,000. This is a very popular local dentist and my neighbor went to him and got dentures for only $495. I will need extractions and that is most of the cost.

They have a world reputation for dentures there...people come in motorhomes and stand on lines to get denture work done there. People say that getting the work done there...the difference is the cost of a vacation...google it.

But my local dentist gave me a better evaluation. Plus, if I went to SC, I would have to pay for gas and a motel, which would all come to more than the price my dentist quoted me.

I know this because because I am also going to the university of Maryland to get implants this year. It will cost me $2000 a tooth there....

I really do think this $9000 for denture work is a bit "over-priced" don't you?

The dentures and all the fittings for both the temporary denture and the final one months later when the gums are done shrinking are only a fraction of the whole cost. It's the extractions that are so pricey, and the more teeth that need to be pulled the more expensive it is. I only needed 4 teeth pulled to get rid of all the teeth in my upper jaw since years before I had a whole bunch of bridge work done. At $300 per tooth for only four teeth to be pulled that's not bad these days, but if this person needs a lot more teeth pulled I can see where the full price could be $9000.

It does piss me off though that when I got my bridgework done in '93 the cost of pulling a tooth was only $50. That's an enormous jump in price from then to now. Only about two years later it had jumped up to $75 per tooth as I had to have one bridge removed and have another tooth that went bad extracted. About a year later, same thing, and the price went up to $100 per tooth extraction.

gave me a price of $80 a tooth. Right now, the only other teeth I have now are my fixed bridges which came out, but I am able to keep them in with dental adhesive until I have the rest extracted and get dentures. I am dreading that day, but it will have to be done soon.

Mine used to, but I think since I got my bridges years ago I've had to go to an oral surgeon to have the teeth pulled since most of them were in such bad shape they broke off at the gum line. He'd still also pull a tooth if I was in a lot of pain, and there was some reason that a root canal couldn't be done. But that's been really most of the time I had extractions anyway.

With all the major work I've had done to my teeth I still have dental hysteria. My dentist knows that if I have to sit in the waiting room for more than a couple of minutes I'll run away, so as soon as I walk in the door they usually can throw me in one of the dentist chair rooms and do any more few minutes of waiting in there... I'm THAT bad about it. I put off having everything done to get the dentures for quite awhile until one of the bridges broke off that was noticeable when I talked or smiled, and it was also the only side of my mouth I could eat on. For something like 3 years I was gluing in one huge 7 tooth bridge that was barely dangling on two little falling apart tooth stubs myself worried all the time that it would fall out at the worst times (and it did a couple of times - soooo embarrassing!). I tried Gorilla glue, super glue, nail glue and finally denture adhesive which by the time I was down to one stub holding in that big bridge only held it in for a few hours. It wasn't until that point that my terror of the denture itself and the extractions I had to have done that I was willing to actually do it, but I was still terrified.

I went to an oral surgeon I'd never been to before since I found out that the one I was used to seeing had died recently. This new guy was a good friend of my dentist (they went to school together) and was very relaxed and funny. I actually ended up laughing through the whole extraction process because it cracked me up that the chair had straps on the arms to strap down patients that are doped up or put to sleep, but to me they seemed like a way to keep me in the chair so I wouldn't try to escape and they'd have to chase me through the parking lot. I also insisted that he put in stitches to make sure that I didn't get any dry sockets which I'd had twice before and would rather be run over by a train than go through THAT again.

By the time you get the teeth pulled the surgeon already has the temporary denture to put in so that you leave with teeth, though unfortunately for me the lab that made the teeth totally screwed up the fit of them (I SWEAR I got someone else's denture - they were THAT bad), so I ended up having to go through 3 weeks with no teeth and no denture while they made the new one.

I'm still wearing the temporary denture after a year and a half since I haven't had the money to get the final one... you have to wait for a good 3 to 6 months after the teeth are extracted for the gums to totally shrink. So now I have to use the store bought refit goo to put on the inside of them to make them fit (I use Cushion Grip that you can buy right at the CVS), and though it says it only stays put for around 4 days, it actually stays put just fine for several months. I watched a few YouTube videos that some people put up that show exactly how to apply the stuff to your dentures (it's a little complicated to get it right). Using the Cushion Grip even with my temporary denture I don't need any adhesive to keep it in, but I would if I ate with them in since I can still only chew on one side which breaks the suction seal that keeps them in.

If I do use denture adhesive I use this stuff you have to buy online called Secure. It's AWESOME. In fact, the only real problem with it is that after even 12-18 hours I can't get my denture OUT - that's how great it sticks. And because it's waterproof so your saliva doesn't soften it, you have to let your denture soak over night to get it soft enough to scrub out of the denture with a tooth brush. It comes off your gums pretty easily though scrubbing them with a toothbrush right after you finally peel the denture out. Any time I use it I know I'm going to probably have to sleep with my dentures in that night. It's also Zinc free, so you don't have to worry about Zinc poisoning which all the big name bands use. I REALLY wish I had known about this stuff when I was still having to glue in my bridges.

They are hard to get used to. The gagging was TERRIBLE for me, so I had to have a good bit of the denture shaved off the back end because of that but they still stay in fine just with suction. I'd like to be able to get rid of the whole roof of the mouth plate though. With the Secure adhesive I bet I could. It really does feel at first that you have a brick in your mouth. I had to relearn how to eat and talk again, and it did take quite awhile before I could say a few sounds I had particular trouble with right. Eating with them in is really strange since you can't really feel that there's food in your mouth. Because of my only being able to chew on one side because I haven't got my lower teeth done yet (have to wait for that until after I can scrape up the money to finish the uppers which is not easy to do since I'm still unemployed) I still take them out to eat, but I never eat in front of anyone anyway. It also cuts down on my snacking all day otherwise I'd likely be fat as a cow. It's really surprising how much you can easily chew with no teeth. The only thing that I'd really have a problem with is apples with the skin on, and I would still need to cut them up to eat without my denture in. I'm not all that big of a fan of apples anyway though... I just missed them since it had been years since I could dare try eating one with my screwed up bridge work.

Even with my dental hysteria and horrible general anxiety that I've had to take meds for my whole adult life the worst of the fear was the anticipation though that's usually how my anxiety problem is anyway. Once my butt was in the surgeon's chair I was almost normal. It was driving there and having to wait in the waiting room that was the worst. I never felt a thing since I was pumped up with Novocaine (I had so much I could barely feel my whole head), and as long as I kept my eyes closed so I wouldn't see any blood, it was fine. I can't even get the happy gas because of the restrictions with my anxiety meds, so I had to do this with just Novocaine. It never bothered me to have extractions before since any other time it was done I was having such bad pain that I would have torn out all my teeth myself with my bare hands to make it stop. So, it was so much harder for me to go have all those teeth pulled when I wasn't having any pain and WANTING them pulled. It was also really hard to have to go to a stranger to have it done though that ended up working out fine since he was a really cool guy. You'll probably feel more comfortable with someone you already know doing yours, but I totally get the anxiety about having it done in the first place. I am absolutely the WORST dental patient on earth, and with my hyper gag reflex I'm probably also the worst candidate for dentures on earth as well. But I still got through it without anyone having to chase me around the parking lot, so you'll be fine. Now I kick my butt all over the place for not having this done years ago especially when I DID have the money.

Once you get the temporary denture after the teeth are pulled, if you have a lot of problems with the gagging feeling have the dentist shave off some at the back of the denture... they can take off a LOT more of it then even they think they can with it still staying in just fine with only suction. They always say "oh, you adjust to that", but any time someone has said that to me I KNOW that I won't... I can hardly stand to just have the mold done. Use the Cushion Grip to keep the temporary denture fitting perfectly while your gums shrink, and if you want to use adhesive definitely order that Secure adhesive off the internet. ALL the other adhesives are CRAP compared to that stuff.

Also, the only thing I don't like about wearing an upper denture aside from the obvious reasons is that it sucks up your saliva, so I feel like you have to be constantly sipping a beverage all the time. It makes me drink a lot of water though which is supposed to be a healthy thing, but of course I had to get used to feeling like I pee 10 times more often than I used to.

I will be donating as soon as possible.

du is a wonderful place

I'm in a paycheck to paycheck situation for the time being so I could only give a small amount. It's easy to think that if you can only spare a few dollars it's not worth bothering. WRONG! If we all pitched in a few bucks Voila! Problem solved and someone can get back into living life normally (like being able to eat because they will have teeth!).

I have faith DUers will make this yet another successful Wishadoo! campaign. Hugs to you all, you wonderful, caring souls!

Julie

this truly is a wonderful community

:kick:

Good luck.