Robert talks about Preparing for Dentures

Did you take time off work for the fitting?

I was quite lucky that I worked close to my dental surgery and so it was always, it was planning, because when I knew I was going to lose the next tooth, as I say in the early stages, I always had a new palette so I would have new teeth every time. The most difficult time was when I actually had the full palette for the first time, and I actually did that in the couple of days prior to two weeks holiday so that I’d got a settling in period and I was used to living with it, because I knew then that I was constantly going to need to use a fixative to keep them in place.

Who did you turn to for support?

I think on the day that I actually went and got my full palette, I was probably with the dentist for maybe an hour, and he was physically showing me how to apply the fixative, how to insert it, how to get the comfort, because having a partial palette at the bottom and a full palette at the top you sort of use the bite action that I still use to align the palette if you want so you’ve got your bite grip.

How did you feel before the fitting?

Pain didn’t bother me at all, I was anxious because I didn’t know what to expect with the full palette and I suppose my biggest fear was opening my mouth to smile and my teeth staying together, you know - that was probably my biggest fear.