Dana L. Yeoman, DDS
Dentures and Implants
Let Them Eat Cake??? | Dana L. Yeoman, DDS
Site last published: 08/21/10
Let Them Eat Cake???
07/08/08 06:15
Last
week my patient was overjoyed about a cucumber and
tomato salad. It was the first one she had eaten in
several years. As a diabetic, she had been
struggling to lose weight and eat in a healthier
manner for a long time. Unfortunately, desire was
not enough. Her old dentures were preventing her
from eating healthy foods. She had described a
terrible pain in her face when she wore the old
dentures. Because of the pain, eating good food
like raw carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, almonds,
oranges and apples were completely out of the
question. The soft foods that she could eat were
often sweets, like cakes, Twinkies, and donuts.
These were exactly what she was trying to
avoid.
Let
Them Eat Cake???
THE STORY
Last week my patient was overjoyed about a cucumber and tomato salad. It was the first one she had eaten in several years. As a diabetic, she had been struggling to lose weight and eat in a healthier manner for a long time. Unfortunately, desire was not enough. Her old dentures were preventing her from eating healthy foods. She had described a terrible pain in her face when she wore the old dentures. Because of the pain, eating good food like raw carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, almonds, oranges and apples were completely out of the question. The soft foods that she could eat were often sweets, like cakes, Twinkies, and donuts. These were exactly what she was trying to avoid.
She has been wearing her new dentures for only a couple of weeks. What made the pain stop?
THE EXPLANATION
The truth is that there are many factors as to why this lady could not eat a cucumber salad with her old dentures. However, her most pronounced problem was the height. The technical term for this is “closed vertical dimension,” which basically means that her dentures were too short for her mouth.
Often a denture is at the correct vertical dimension when it is newly made and inserted. Over the years, the bone naturally erodes away, but the dentures stay the same. The dentures are no longer tall enough to make up for the missing bone. One of the common symptoms of short dentures is a concave profile, where the chin and the nose are coming closer together. Some describe this as the “witch look.” Another symptom is an under-bite, where the lower teeth jut out in front of the upper teeth. This is sometimes described as the "bulldog look."
My patient had both these problems, but also one much more medically serious. She felt excruciating pain radiating from her jaw joint, called the Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ). When touching her teeth together, she had to close her jaws a lot farther than nature had intended her to do originally. This put strain on her TMJ, creating pain not only in the joint, but in the attached muscles needed for chewing. This can be felt all the way up into the temples and beyond the hair line. It is also felt the ear, cheek, and inside and outside of the lower jaw. Hearing can be impaired. The pain can be debilitating.
THE FIX
In an hour long appointment, I set up a laboratory within the treatment room. I created a denture template for my patient with precise measurements and accurate construction. Among other things, I determined the proper lip support, tooth length, shape of her face, and the height of her back teeth, all of which cured her concave profile and corrected her vertical dimension. She was on her way to an extreme bruise-free facelift and pain-free chewing. A few days later, my patient was fitted with dentures meeting her needs, and most particularly her “height requirement.”
THE CONCLUSION
The instant the new dentures were delivered to my patient, she looked shocked. “The pain stopped.”
Her face looks younger, healthier and happier for having properly fitted dentures. She is healthier and happier without the pain. Best of all, she is happiest that she ate her cucumber and tomato salad after craving it for so many years, and she is well on her way to living a healthy lifestyle.
Dana L. Yeoman, D.D.S.
Second Smile Denture Care
3301 19th Street
Bakersfield, CA 93301
Tel: 661-325-1263
THE STORY
Last week my patient was overjoyed about a cucumber and tomato salad. It was the first one she had eaten in several years. As a diabetic, she had been struggling to lose weight and eat in a healthier manner for a long time. Unfortunately, desire was not enough. Her old dentures were preventing her from eating healthy foods. She had described a terrible pain in her face when she wore the old dentures. Because of the pain, eating good food like raw carrots, cauliflower, cucumbers, almonds, oranges and apples were completely out of the question. The soft foods that she could eat were often sweets, like cakes, Twinkies, and donuts. These were exactly what she was trying to avoid.
She has been wearing her new dentures for only a couple of weeks. What made the pain stop?
THE EXPLANATION
The truth is that there are many factors as to why this lady could not eat a cucumber salad with her old dentures. However, her most pronounced problem was the height. The technical term for this is “closed vertical dimension,” which basically means that her dentures were too short for her mouth.
Often a denture is at the correct vertical dimension when it is newly made and inserted. Over the years, the bone naturally erodes away, but the dentures stay the same. The dentures are no longer tall enough to make up for the missing bone. One of the common symptoms of short dentures is a concave profile, where the chin and the nose are coming closer together. Some describe this as the “witch look.” Another symptom is an under-bite, where the lower teeth jut out in front of the upper teeth. This is sometimes described as the "bulldog look."
My patient had both these problems, but also one much more medically serious. She felt excruciating pain radiating from her jaw joint, called the Temporomandibular Joint (TMJ). When touching her teeth together, she had to close her jaws a lot farther than nature had intended her to do originally. This put strain on her TMJ, creating pain not only in the joint, but in the attached muscles needed for chewing. This can be felt all the way up into the temples and beyond the hair line. It is also felt the ear, cheek, and inside and outside of the lower jaw. Hearing can be impaired. The pain can be debilitating.
THE FIX
In an hour long appointment, I set up a laboratory within the treatment room. I created a denture template for my patient with precise measurements and accurate construction. Among other things, I determined the proper lip support, tooth length, shape of her face, and the height of her back teeth, all of which cured her concave profile and corrected her vertical dimension. She was on her way to an extreme bruise-free facelift and pain-free chewing. A few days later, my patient was fitted with dentures meeting her needs, and most particularly her “height requirement.”
THE CONCLUSION
The instant the new dentures were delivered to my patient, she looked shocked. “The pain stopped.”
Her face looks younger, healthier and happier for having properly fitted dentures. She is healthier and happier without the pain. Best of all, she is happiest that she ate her cucumber and tomato salad after craving it for so many years, and she is well on her way to living a healthy lifestyle.
Dana L. Yeoman, D.D.S.
Second Smile Denture Care
3301 19th Street
Bakersfield, CA 93301
Tel: 661-325-1263