Thursday, June 11, 2009

Coming Out

Tomorrow Della and I will head to the big city of Olympia, so I can begin the process of becoming toothless. I'm going to have my mouth measured for dentures. Of course, since I'm on Medicaid, the whole process of authorization, oral surgery, and fitting my new dentures may take weeks or even months, so it's not like I will lose what's left of my choppers tomorrow.

When I was a young lad, I associated dentures with being very, very old. The only people I knew who sported false teeth were my grandparents and great aunts and uncles. Ya know, people who were ancient! But, due to gum disease, Della had all her teeth pulled in her mid 30s and now I'm getting ready to join her in my early 50s. So, I guess a person doesn't have to be so ancient after all. :D)

Several people have asked me how I feel about losing all my teeth. If my teeth were in relatively good shape, it might cause me a bit of melancholy. But my teeth are not in good shape -- relative or otherwise. Eating has become sort of a perverse dance with me; chewing very carefully so as not to bite down on the wrong spot. Even worse, I've had to cut out hard or really crunchy foods altogether.

While, I'm sure, dentures (like my new bifocals) will take some getting used to, I'm actually a bit anxious to try them out. There's a cornucopia of foods I'm missing out on right now like corn on the cob and too many raw vegetables to mention.

2 comments:

  1. Good luck! It may be helpful to get at raw vegetables; I think these are supposed to be especially good for one, even as far as vegetables go.

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  2. Ya think? Particularly since I'm a vegetarian! :D)

    ReplyDelete

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