My mother is 85 years old. Today two of her teeth just fell out. We had her at the dentist just last week for a dental filling so I don’t understand how this can happen. I feel like her dental care isn’t being properly handled. Is there an affordable solution to get her oral health taken care of? My guess is there is a lot more wrong than these two teeth. She’s a proud woman and wants an attractive smile, as we all do. I’m raising a family of 7 so I can’t afford a ton and she’s been living on social security with me helping out a bit every month.
Cole
Dear Cole,
You’ve certainly got a lot on your plate and I respect how you are trying to look out for your mother. I agree that something isn’t right with the way her dentist is handling her oral health. If I understand you correctly, she just had two teeth fall out? That indicates severe gum disease. Why did he do the tooth fillings without addressing that? Why also hadn’t he mentioned it much sooner when it would be easier to get under control? He is obviously not the best dentist for your mother.
If she were younger I would suggest dental implants for her missing teeth. However, the gum disease has to be under control first. Plus, I wouldn’t consider that an affordable dental solution, which is what you need.
Dentures
While you will still want to get her gum disease under control for the sake of her general health, preferably with a different dentist, if it is advanced as I think her teeth will not be able to be saved.
My suggestion is to get the remainder of her teeth extracted and get her completely removable dentures. As I said earlier, if she was younger I wouldn’t suggest it, but her age makes it unlikely she will suffer from facial collapse, which is a problem with long term wear of dentures.
This will give her teeth she can eat with and keep her nutrition up but won’t bankrupt you.
This blog is brought to you by Decatur, AL Dentists Drs. Drake and Wallace.