TRAVAILS OF TOOTHLESSNESS - Part Three.Final Part.

TRAVAILS OF TOOTHLESSNESS - Part Three.Final Part.

I had written the blog series Travails of Toothlessness between August and November 2007.

I was 58 then and had just lost all my teeth with the extraction of the last tooth.
Even though I published the blog, I was not very happy.
I have redone it, and the revised edition of the 2007 Blog is being published now.
TRAVAILS OF TOOTHLESSNESS - Part One.
Part one covered my experiences about how I lost all my teeth over a period of 7 odd years.
TRAVAILS OF TOOTHLESSNESS - Part Two.
Part one dealt with how one's speech is affected and other incidental changes that occur after the loss of teeth

TRAVAILS OF TOOTHLESSNESS - Part Three, The last part.

Look at the extracted tooth; the root portion embedded in the gums is almost twice the size of the visible tooth. In some cases, as long as one cm. A wound a cm deep in the gum is not a laughing matter. You look at your jaw line, look at the root portion embedded in the gums, and you wonder and marvel at the fact that how 32 teeth were fitted so tightly in such a limited space of the jaw. God is great.
After the last tooth is extracted, the mouth is full of 32 wounded gums. Some wounds have healed, some are almost healed, while the recent ones are raw and painful. The healing takes time. Dentest give about a month to a month and a half before they call you for fitting the dentures.
That one month or a month and a half is full of challenges.
The diet of necessity turns liquidy. Breakfast is invariably porridge or such similar item. For lunch and dinner, Chapaties are put through the mixture grinder, the output is mixed with dal/vegetables and mashed by hand till you get a homogeneous slurry. Rice is not put through the grinder but given similar treatment till similar results are obtained. Then you more or less drink your lunch and dinner. All this for a month and a half. Thank God you have to go through such an experience only once in your life 😉
The dietary challenge is in addition to the challenges of a toothless, collapsed face, impairment in speech and saliva spray due to a few missing front teeth, though embarrassing, no doubt, but these are minor embarrassments and challenges compared to what is yet to come.
The biggest challenge during this period of a month and a half, between the last extraction and fitting of dentures, is totally unexpected and hits you out of the blue.
What happens is nature's response to all those wounded gums that need something to keep them infection-free and also help in the healing process. To do this body produces saliva. As we all know, Saliva, or spit, is a watery fluid made by glands in your mouth, mostly water (99%) but also containing proteins, enzymes, and minerals that moisten food for chewing/swallowing, begin digestion (starches), fight germs, neutralise acids, protect teeth, and help with taste and speech. In this case output of saliva increases manyfold to keep the gums almost submerged.
For this period, during which your gums heal fully, most of the time, your mouth is full of saliva.
The saliva quantity has to be controlled by occasional swallowing. A sort of suction has to be created before you open your mouth so that this excess saliva does not overflow.
However, in moments of carelessness, you DROOL !!!
If you are lucky, this can be when you are alone and if not so lucky, when in company. Unfortunately, this happens often as you have never experienced such excess saliva before in your life.
In those moments, you wish the earth to open up and you to vanish in that chasm!
Reminds one of the infant stage when such drooling could not be controlled, and one had to use a bib to protect the clothing and maintain hygiene!
It is for nothing that old age is compared to and is called "second childhood "!
After a month and a half, the gums are fully healed, and you visit the dentist. A mould is prepared. Another three or four days and you return to the dentist. You are fitted with dentures.
When you leave the dentist this time, in your mouth, you again have 32 teeth. These are no match to God given pearlies but you thank your stars and the technology because something is better than nothing.
Dentures are better than toothlessness 😁