DENTURES

August 1st 2023..

When I was growing up I really never thought much about teeth. The years were going on and I watched my parents teeth slowly disintegrate. Not giving it any thought until I noticed my dad’s teeth dropping out.  At random. He hid it nicely with a large mustache. I also watched my mother’s doing the same and that’s when the smiles ended. As the years went by my older brother had to get dentures and as well my sister. I guess we were the part of the tribe that just ate soup broth and anything soft.

My teeth started to head south when I was younger and I really never paid much attention to it, as my parents weren’t good about teaching us the importance of brushing or flossing.

When I got older my wife and I moved to Mexico.

I was about 55. All my friends there told me about the dentist’s only charging pennies on the dollar for dental work.

Not like in the U.S.

I called and signed up for an appointment and went to see a dentist in a small village about a half hour away. I drove all around the village and finally found the dentist.

I was told to go into the cable TV office. I finally found the right place. I was the only person who didn’t speak Spanish. I went to the counter and asked the clerk in the cable store about a dentist and he pointed towards the hallway at a piece of paper with a pencil drawing of a tooth about two inches square taped to the wall.

I sat in one of the two chairs and waited a while. A lady came out and called my name and I went in.

No English was spoken and it was a very tiny room like half the size of a bedroom with a very old and a little bit dirty dentist chair. The dentist was a nice man with a big smile who made me feel very comfortable.

I Got a check up and it cost me $7 bucks. At that point I was pretty scared and decided to hold off until I really needed to get some work done.

Well came a time a few years after my first visit that I really needed some care. My teeth had started to look real bad, so I opted to get porcelain caps for all my teeth. How this was done I thought was a bit strange, as they had to grind down each one of my teeth to small nub’s until I looked like a jack o lantern. I had to look like that for about three weeks until my caps came in.

Each tooth was placed on the nubs and glued on.

I do have to say it was a 100% better than the Jack O Lantern look I had to carry around the village.

Actually the caps were pretty awesome and they made me feel like a new man. Never really had any problems with them.

Fast forward about 10 years and I was starting to get real bad tooth pain now and then, so I would go in and have them yanked one at a time. Soon I was noticing that I was having more yanked than I should. I realized that I might start to get a few implants.

In 2023 we went on a vacation up into Oregon for a month and during the vacation the tooth pain was to intense to handle. I called a nephew in Portland at around 9PM. I asked if he knew any dentist that would help me. He said he had a friend and he called him and we were on our way to his dentist. Got there at about 9:30. He took an ex ray and told me it was infected really bad. I told him I was going to drive home the next day. He wrote me a prescription for 20 pain medication.

The next morning we headed home.

We Cut the vacation short and started driving towards home. We decided to see a dentist in Arizona were we had just moved to.

August first 2023.

I went in complaining about a tooth ache and he decided to take out the one that I thought was causing me the pain.  No X-rays we’re mentioned on the first visit just over $350 to pull the tooth. The average cost of a tooth extraction in Arizona can range from $146 to $300 per tooth.

A week later the area was still in complete pain, so I went back in and we decided to do an ex ray and took out the next one I believe they gave me a discount and it was $300.00.

Five days later my mouth was still painful, so I went back in and had a full mouth X-ray. Well looks like a few of the teeth under the caps had a few cavities.

Out of the blue they suggested I should consider dentures. I was completely against it and was going to head back to Mexico and let them figure out what to do, because I knew it would cost a lot less than half.

That night I went home and was eating a tortilla and my front tooth broke off and I looked pretty goofy,

so I went back to the dentist the next day I brought the tooth with me and asked them if they could put it back in and they said they couldn’t, because it had nothing to attach it to.

It was at that point they asked me again if I would consider dentures? They said it would be no problem and they could extract them all out in two days from today. That was odd, because to get an appointment it’s over a couples week wait.

They quickly said do you want to do it? If you do you will have a beautiful smile. I asked how many people get all their teeth taken out and they said we do at least one a day.

I know and they knew if they would have given me a few days to think about it I probably would’ve changed my mind and said no, but I said ok let’s do it. I really don’t know what I was thinking.

The owner dentist came in and he was cool and a good talker. He brought in a pad of paper and started to write down what was going to be done and the total cost of everything and it was about $10,000. I freaked out and said I couldn’t afford it and he started to tell me he could find places where he could discount things. He got it down to $6,000 if I put half down.

They didn’t explain anything about what it means to have dentures and the timeline for things to come like excruciating pain and bone spurs and the dentures not fitting and tons of glue. The biggest thing they didn’t mention was the fact that your next year, or more is going to be horribly painful and different.

These are things a person needs to know in order to make an adult evaluation of things to come.

They scheduled an appointment just a couple days away.  I went in two days later and they removed all my teeth within a few hours. The shots to get ready for the extraction’s was something I wouldn’t won’t anyone to ever have to go through.

I’ve had shots for dental work over the years and they hurt, but the shots they gave me right into the main nerves to get me ready for them to rip all my teeth out was some of the worst pain I have ever experienced.

I screamed really loud with every shot and I’m sure everyone else in the office that were getting work done was thinking twice about ever coming back to get more work done.

OMG it was definitely the worst experience of my life. They had trouble pulling out the bottoms and had to cut some of the sides of the gums. Sitting in the chair with the dentist pulling back and fourth and hearing the teeth breaking and him pulling with all his might and tugging out each tooth.

I felt I was being tourtured and that this had to be the worst day of my entire life.

Believe me I’ve had my share of medical procedures like a new knee a new hip a couple of heart attacks. I’ve had four stents put in my heart, a small stroke and broken many ribs so many times and broken my ankles at least four times and broken arms. I’ve had my prostate cut up and most of my tubes rooted and had to wear a pee bag for a while but all I can say is nothing compares to the removal of all your teeth in one sitting.

I left the dentist office in complete disbelief of what I had just gone through.

I’m supposed to get a pair of posts on the bottom, but with the amount of bone that got pulled out during the extraction they tell me I’m going to have to get some bone grafts that will take months to get ready for posts.

Getting home I didn’t feel so bad because the tons of novocaine was still with me. Then the pain started to creep up on me and then it was on like donkey Kong.

I’m a real big baby when it comes to pain. I don’t do well with any pain. Paper cuts make me think I need medical attention and need to go to the hospital.

Pain medication doesn’t work for me like most people and I need twice as much or more to take away the slightest pain.

The epidemic of people abusing pain medication in the United States has totally destroyed the system for people who suffer with chronic pain. If you are a person who needs quite a bit of medication to stop the chronic pain you suffer from you are out of luck. Well the next two weeks we’re not fun. The dentist could not and would not quite understand my dilemma, so with what pain meds they gave me I ran out quickly. I called and asked for more medication and he treated me like a drug addict. My hatred for this dentist was building and I felt he didn’t want to understand me he seemed to care more about his hair looking good.

Because he refused to get me more pain medication

I had to search my neighborhood and ask if anyone could help me and give me any extra pain medication they had not used to stop my pain. I lucked out and got almost enough pain meds to relieve the excruciating pain.

The pain was not going away and I asked the dentist for some more pain medication and he said he couldn’t give me anymore.

It was then that I realized I had totally chosen the wrong dentist. It’s been three very bad weeks since the yanking and I’m finally feeling better. Not looking so good, but no extreme pain. After I had the teeth removed little sharp spurs started to grow out of a few areas. The spurs come out sharply and felt like razor cuts on your gums and really hurt quite a bit. They are also something new for my tongue to dart to and do a dance nonstop all day and night.

I went back to the dentist today and had them look at the spurs and they had to cut them all out.

Oh my God what next…. Well they did the imprints to make my new smile. Not to invasive just seemed like a couple of pounds of purple goop stuck in my mouth. I’m not a nose breather, so at the end of the goop hardening I started to gag and gag and I felt like I was going to throw up. They pulled out the goop just in time.

I had an appointment for a week after that to go for another fitting of the teeth in wax. I’m was getting very excited about my new smile that was coming in about four weeks. Ok it’s time to go in and give my new dentures a trial run my teeth in wax.

They show them to me and the excitement is overwhelming, because of everything I had gone through now finally my teeth are almost done.

they put them in and it hurts like hell, but they look great. For the few minutes they were in my mouth I wasn’t paying much attention to them, because of the pain they were causing and they pulled them out and had me sign a paper that said I was giving my go ahead. I really wasn’t paying much attention to how they looked I was just excited to see new teeth.

Well the next week came and my real teeth dentures were ready to put in.

I noticed that the bottom teeth looked like a row of baby teeth and I was a bit surprised I hadn’t noticed

that when we did the 2 minute trial run before I signed the paperwork that said I couldn’t change my mind. They gave them to me to  slide in. Well there was no sliding them in, as it took everything I had to push them onto my gums. I can’t even tell you how much pain it was to get them over the places where they had done small surgery to get the spurs cut out.

All the dentists and assistants were assuring me that it would get much easier. Then I had to take them out to make some adjustments….. I screamed the pain was just about more than I could bear. They did a few grinding adjustments and I had to put them back in. Worst day ever. Well I had been putting them in and out and I could hardly bear the pain. I went back in today and haven’t put them in for a few days, because of the extreme pain.

The dentist was trying to put them in, but the pain was to much, so he started to grind the areas where the gums were cut and he said there were open sores in the areas from putting them in and taking them out. He ground the dentures for a bit and tried to put them in again. The pain was still extreme, but I got the teeth in. The pain was to much to keep the teeth in, so the dentist decided to have me keep them out for a few days to let the gums heal a bit.

He said the spots are bleeding and are real hot spots. I asked for some pain medication, but he said the government has such a tight hold that he can’t get me any pain meds. I could not believe my ears and I knew getting my work done at this dentist was the worst mistake I’ve made in my entire lifetime.

He tried to trick me into thinking he was doing me a favor and wrote me a prescription and said just give it to the pharmacy and see if they will give you the prescription.

He knew damn well they wouldn’t. I was in so much pain, so I went to the pharmacy and they said we can’t fill that… your dentist knows that….all I could think was …. What an ass.

I ask you what do you think if my dentist was dealing with the pain I’m feeling in my mouth, do you think he could get some meds?

If your patients are in extreme pain it is your job to solve it. You are the one who caused the pain.

I really like the dentist that works on me I believe it’s the owners cousin and I like the young girls that help the dentist. The women at the front desk seem a little phony.

One day I asked the lady behind the counter if I could use my Medicare insurance that I had just got and she said no we really don’t want to change up the way we were doing the billing. That really was another punch in the face.

Im not a fan of the owner dentist, because there have been way to many events that make me question whether I need to find another dentist and get some second opinions.

One day they did a procedure and after I went into the lobby area the girl behind the counter said.. oh that will be $350 and I came unglued. I said wait a minute (very nicely) the dentist told me the contract bill was the total cost of my work.

She said oh the dentist just gives you a ballpark, as they never know what might come up. I said well let me talk to the dentist because I’m not going to pay it. She went down the hall and came back from his office and she tells me that he said no problem we will credit it to your account.

I could tell that she was not happy and I believe that came from him grudgingly, because I had been telling them about my writing blogs.

After leaving the office with my teeth I realized I had not properly been shown how to put the adhesive on and put in the dentures. When I got home I filled the dentures with adhesive and put them in and when it was time to take them out it was almost impossible. I pulled and pulled and the pain was intense and finally they came out. My mouth was filled with what it seemed to be a few pounds of the red adhesive and took a while to get all the adhesive out.

At the dentist today I was sitting in the chair and he said ok take them out and with a little pain I did. He asked where the most pain was coming from and I pointed at the place on my gums that were still cut and in pain every day. He grounded down the area of the dentures and asked me to put them back in. Pushing the plastic dentures over the open wound is always a lot of pain.

I made a bit of a scream pushing them in and the dentist said “well you are sure theatrical today aren’t you? I almost got up and punched him in the throat. Rage was building up in me and that’s not who I am.

I asked him have you ever had any dental work done like this? He said no and I said I sure would like to be the dentist doing to you what your doing to me.

The following week he did apologize for his comments when I was there last.

It’s been almost 7 weeks and I still have a couple of hot spots. For me this hurts like hell putting them on and taking them off.

Well my teeth are in and I find it really painful to bite down on anything even a marshmallow. I have been in 5 times to have them grind down the spots that hurt. I get the feeling that the couple of dentists that work on my mouth are done with me. It feels like they wish I was done there.

The other day I had some friends over for dinner, so I took my teeth out a few hours before they came over, so I could put them in just before we ate and I did.

I put a lot of adhesive on so I could maybe eat a salad. The spaghetti was easy to eat, but the salad was to painful and I couldn’t eat. Later it was time to take out the teeth and the bottoms popped right out, but the tops were impossible to move at all. I tried twice and couldn’t get them out.

I went to bed and about 2:00 am I woke up and my mouth was hurting so I tried a couple of times to pull them out, but couldn’t get them out. I woke up in the morning and got on google to find out how to get them out. I rinsed with hot water for a few minutes and rinsed with scope and they came out.

That was a lesson I wasn’t told, but won’t forget.

On my contract it said they were going to do what bone grafts it would take to put in posts. They are doing everything they can to get me to go somewhere else to get it done. Last week the dentist said “you need to find yourself a great surgeon to get your posts put in. I was pissed.

I didn’t say anything, because I’m going to get a second opinion and find out why they don’t want to do the grafts. I think it’s money that they don’t want to put in the time to get mine done, because it’s supposed to be included in my total cost of my dentures.

The other day I went in to get some advice about every time I eat my bottom teeth fall out.

I got an appointment and went in and they put me in the chair and the dentist came in and said we’re going to give you a soft realignment and I had no idea what this was and  I had no idea this was coming. No one had ever mentioned this to me. Then they came in and said that it was a special new thing and a company had sent it in for a trial and the owner didn’t know and they were going to try it on me.

The dentist told me it was going to make my mouth feel so much better, but it wasn’t covered in my estimated costs. Then they tell me it’s $600.00 I’m in the chair and I said ok go ahead if it is going to stop the pain, because the owner had never mentioned this and has a thing about my pain and meds. I have no idea why he has such a problem with making sure clients don’t have to deal with extreme pain.

I believe that there is something deeper than he would disclose. I feel like maybe something happened with them passing out pain medication.

I have been clean and sober 33 years and was the executive director of a nonprofit substance abuse program for almost 20 years.

I slowly after many months let the hate and rage and anger all go, because I knew soon I would be working with a new dentist.

My teeth look good when I can get them in, but still I can’t eat, because it hurts too much.  It’s been months and it still hurts every time I eat anything. The bottoms fall out whenever I eat and they become a part of the meal and soon I am chewing them with my food.  Well we are coming up on 6 months and the story remains the same. Whenever I eat or put a mint in my mouth or anything for that matter my meal becomes my bottom dentures. It is not only embarrassing, but so very humiliating. It’s like eating with a mouth full of Lego’s. Well it’s going on 10 months and my bottom teeth still come out when I eat. They still hurt when I bite down I’ve lost 65 pounds and I regret with every fiber of my being ever walking in the dentist office.

I wish I would have been informed and had a complete truthful conversation about the reality about dentures and the life changing process of getting them. They failed on every level.

I have switched dentists to do the remaining work to be done.

The new dentist includes me and  I have a say in what’s going on with my teeth.

The dentist lets me know what’s going on with each visit. I’m starting the new process and I’m really happy. I got my two posts on my bottom dentures and one got infected and I was in Oregon. I called and told him what was going on and he sent a prescription up to Oregon of real pain meds, because he was concerned about my well being. The other dentist would have totally ignored me and probably told me to check into the ER.

My new dentist was overly apologetic about how I was feeling. It was reassuring that he genuinely cared.

Since then I continue to have procedures and am very comfortable with my new dentist.

It’s now coming up on one year and while I was with the first dentist I feel was one of the worst years of my life.

Today is September third 2025 and I stopped in the original dentist office to talk with the owner and asked to talk to Brett Flattery and they said that he was very busy and I could wait for an hour and a half or leave my number and he would call me.

HE NEVER CALLED ME!

The lowest form of manhood

DENTIST STORY

August first 2023.

I went in complaining about a tooth ache and t he dude decided to take out the one that I thought was causing me the pain.  No X-rays were mentioned on the first visit just over $350 to pull the tooth. The average cost of a tooth extraction in Arizona can range from $146 to $300 per tooth.

A week later the area was still in complete pain, so I went back in and we decided to do an ex ray and the one that was bad they pulled this time but they gave me a discount and it was $300.00.

Five days later my mouth was still painful, so I went back in and had a full mouth X-ray. Well looks like a few of the teeth under the caps had a couple cavities.

Out of the blue they suggested I should consider dentures. I was completely against it and was going to head back to Mexico and let them figure out what to do, because I knew it would cost a lot less more than half.

That night I went home and was eating a tortilla and my front tooth broke off and I looked pretty goofy,

So I went back to the dentist the next day I brought the tooth with me and asked them if they could put it back in and they said they couldn’t, because it had nothing to attach it to.

It was at that point they asked me again if I would consider dentures? They said it would be no problem and they could extract them all out in two days from today. That was odd, because to get an appointment it’s over a couples week wait.

They quickly said do you want to do it? If you do you will have a beautiful smile. I asked how many people get all their teeth taken out and they said we do at least one a day.

I know and they knew if they would have given me a few days to think about it I probably would’ve changed my mind and said no, but I said ok let’s do it. I really don’t know what I was thinking.

They didn’t explain anything about what it means to have dentures and the timeline for things to come like excruciating pain and bone spurs and the dentures not fitting and tons of glue. The biggest thing they didn’t mention was the fact that your next year, or more is going to be horribly painful and very different.

These are things a person needs to know in order to make an adult evaluation of things to come.

They scheduled an appointment just a couple days away.  I went in two days later and they removed all my teeth within a few hours. The shots to get ready for the extraction’s was something I wouldn’t won’t anyone to ever have to go through.

I’ve had shots for dental work over the years and they hurt, but the shots they gave me right into the main nerves to get me ready for them to rip all my teeth out was some of the worst pain I have ever experienced.

I screamed really loud with every shot and I’m sure everyone else in the office that were getting work done was thinking twice about ever coming back to get more work done.

OMG it was definitely the worst experience of my life. They had trouble pulling out the bottoms and had to cut some of the sides of the gums. Sitting in the chair with the dentist pulling back and fourth and I was hearing the teeth breaking and him pulling with all his might and tugging out each tooth.

I felt I was being tourtured and that this had to be the worst day of my entire life.

Believe me I’ve had my share of medical procedures like a new knee a new hip a couple of heart attacks. I’ve had four stents put in my heart, a small stroke and broken many ribs so many times and broken my ankles at least four times and broken arms. I’ve had my prostate cut up and most of my tubes rooted and had to wear a pee bag for a while and now have no bladder, but all I can say is nothing compares to the removal of all your teeth all in one sitting.

I left the dentist office in complete disbelief of what I had just gone through. The next few years were horrible the teeth they put in the bottoms never fit cause me nothing but pain and every time I ate, they would fall out. Fast forward to just lately. I was at one of my favorite restaurants eating and my bottom teeth fell out, so I wrapped them in a napkin put them on the table went home and forgot them. I went back to the restaurant and asked if they found my teeth, they said no they probably had thrown them away. Went back to a new dentist got a new set for another $2500 and a few weeks went by after I got my new teeth one day I wrapped them in a napkin at another restaurant put them in my pocket came home didn’t realize it was my teeth. Just thought it was a napkin, and I threw them Away. I’ve been bottom toothless for a while, and it makes it really almost impossible to eat anything I like except cake and pies and cookies. We just got a new puppy. What a cute little thing. He’s a puppy. I left my top teeth on the table next to my chair in the living room and he got a hold of them. I looked down and he was wearing my teeth in his mouth. He ended up only eating one of the teeth, but my dentures were all intact except for the one tooth. So because I knew it was gonna cost massive money for them to go ahead and make a new mold and do all the things they do. I decided to go through my puppies poop for two days. Hallelujah I found my tooth and tomorrow I go and have them put it back in. Now I know what they mean about a shit eatin grin.