Q.
Please, please, please can you advise and help me. I have been undergoing a course of treatment for new partial top and bottom dentures since November 2006 and am no nearer to completing the treatment. I don’t feel I can smile any more and I don’t know how much longer I can go on. My husband and I were planning to renew our wedding vows in June 2007, when he returned from a tour of duty in Iraq with the British Army. My dentist suggested Valplas dentures, the first set of which were a very poor fit and I was unable to wear. I then lost another tooth and ended up having a tooth added to my 10 year old dentures, having them repaired and strengthened and having to wear them to renew our wedding vows. When my gum had healed, I started again on a course of treatment to replace my upper dentures. They are Valplast dentures again and from trying the wax set in to having the final set the whole appearance changed and the texture of the palate leaves my tongue constantly sore. The teeth on this set are shorter than my 10 year old set and they slant inwards, leaving my smile looking dark and toothless. I am a Denplan patient, and during this time my dentist became ill. Last year I tried to change to another dentist, but they wouldn’t take me on their register until I had finished my current course of treatment. I went back to my old dentist and the appointments continued to be cancelled. Unfortunately I haven’t kept a record of the number, but I guess I have had, during this course of treatment, in excess of 50 appointments and approximately half of those have been cancelled. My dentist has now retired and his practice has been taken over by another dentist, who has resumed my treatment, but I find him very harsh and rough and after my last two visits find I am getting frightened at the thought of my next visit. I still haven’t got a new set of top dentures that can give me my smile back and haven’t even started on my bottom dentures. My husband is now serving in Sierra Leone and I would love to be able to smile when he comes home. Please could you tell me how much new upper and lower partial dentures would cost and also how long it would take to make and fit them (I think it will be cosmetic dentures that I need and not the ones with implants as I have had (I am sorry I am not sure how to spell this) apasectomies on about 6 of my top front teeth. I now have only three teeth at the top, two at the very back and one at the front/side, and seven at the bottom – one at the back and the rest at the front. My husband has been away most of the time last year and this and should be coming back at the end of July and I would love to be able to smile when he comes home. I really hope you will be able to help me. Please can you reply as soon as possible as I am desperate to know if I can start to put things right in time for my husband coming home.