Hi sandy,
With regard to tooth #2 area.... in about 3 months, have an xray taken of that area to determine how the bone looks and if there is any sign of a bone spur. The bone takes months to fill in and unless you are having pain there, it is just too early to tell if there is something that needs attention.
With regard to #11 .... the dental lab cannot fabricate a tooth on a partial to resemble (exactly) what the other teeth look like. The fake tooth may indeed look too long compared to the other ones but the gum in that area will shrink somewhat as the extraction site heals. According to your posts, you didn't have a gum graft, you had a bone graft. These are two completely different things. The bone graft has only minimal effect on the shape of the gum as it is really meant to fill in the bony socket and encourage your own bone to fill in as completely as possible. The more bone that fills in, the lower the gum will heal along the gumline leaving it with a more natural appearance. However, months down the road your permanent implant crown may be slightly "longer in the tooth" than your adjacent teeth. Without the graft material, you would have lost at minimum 50% of your bone level at that site once the area healed. This would have resulted in a caved in appearance of the bony ridge and a very high arc along the gumline. So the graft will help to minimize that "arc" in the gumline but not eliminate it completely.
If you feel that the fake tooth is causing too much pressure along the gum in the site of #11 then one of two things may be happening. One is the flipper may not be seating all the way down and needs to be adjusted or the tooth is too long and it needs to be filed down a little bit. Adjustmens can be made to the tooth or any other part of the flipper without ruining the integrity of the appliance. Sometimes just the minimalist adjustment does the trick!
The flipper will feel like a mouthful until you get use to it. But the pressure feeling should lessen with each day of wearing it. If you find that any tooth or area becomes very achey or painful, then the flipper definitely needs an adjustment.
As far as talking with it, again your muscles have to get use to it being there. Your tongue is not use to sharing the palate when you speak or eat but if it fits well, your tongue will adapt to it being there.
I know this is hard..... and it seems like it's just never ending!! I wish there were any easier way......... ~'.'~... hang in there!!
Bryanna
Quote:
Originally Posted by sandy60
Both the OS and my regular dentist said that 2 may need to be cleaned out but I may be a slow healer so leave it alone for now. It is still reddish. I have yet another question. The tooth on the flipper is higher than the gum by about a millimeter. It may look like the old tooth when the impression was taken but now it looks pointy on top and way too big. As you know, I had a bone graft so still healing. My dentist said the gum will recede and the flipper will fit better but I thought with the gum graft, the gum will get bigger and be even lower. I asked if the tooth can be filed down in the lab and he said no. It looks so big...nobody will look at the top of my gum but after paying so much for this, shouldn't it loook better? It matches exactly but looks kind of at an angle, just not meeting the gum correctly. Will my gum in fact recede and go back to its original shape which is more arched, un which case the tooth will fit better? I am so unclear on this. Thank you so much for the tips. I can't speak normally and it feels like it is squeezing my teeth, so uncomfortable. I'll do what you and my dentist said though. I don't see how I will ever get used to this, feels like a mountain in my mouth :-(
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