I have a spare set of dentures.  LOL

Kidding aside, do what you can because all the old farts that tell you how good dentures are, are lying.  Save every tooth you can, because physics are physics and real teeth have 10X the chewing power of dentures.

Now with me, I never had a cavity, not one, until I was over 50 and due to an illness and before imunotheraphy was on long term steroids, which deplete calcium.  Guess where first.  I fought it and fought it spending a fortune and doing everything they tell you to do till after listening to old folks telling me how great dentures were I just gave up.  Man, I've done some stupid shit in my day but that was one of biggest.  I gave up 11 teeth, some actually good.  Had I had it to do over, I would have fought for every damn one of them just as I am now for my bottom teeth.  I have two gaps in them now but won't give up one more to get a partial.  Its that bad.

Man I'm a bucket load of what not to does.  Another one is should the day come you need dentures, the most expensive usual is NOT the way to go.  However many teeth are gone, go toothless till your gum hardens, then forget take an impression send it off.  Its going to change before they come back and using adhesives suck.  Its like your brains are being sucked out of your head. Go to a place that does it all in one day, has a lab right there.  Then they can do an impression and adjust it with no time in between for things to change.  BTW, Place I used doesn't take insurance but the out of pocket cost was less than the dentist who took insurance.  As far as I know, probably used the same damn lab too.  Its not in the lab but in the timing.

You know the definition of a wise man?  He's a man who learns from his mistakes. I've been told many times I'm a wise man.  Guys I'd much rather been a smart man for a smart man learns from others mistakes.

Mistake 1 regarding my teeth was trusting a doctor about those steroids.  I should have researched the hell out of that, which I did, of course, a day late and head full of teeth late.  Don't get me wrong, I was doing all the teeth stuff, brushing, flossing, cleaning, etc.  It takes more than that.  It takes you doing research and treating every little indicator like it was a sign of a heart attack.  Now I'm not going to tell you its Judy in the Sky.  Many of those I lost were fillings, then root canals, and still lost the damn tooth.  What I can tell you is its worth every damn bit of it and every dime spent to keep them as long as I could.

Fight for them because truly the only damn thing you can say about dentures is "Pretty Smile" everything else sucks.

Tj

Boy do I have a story for you.  When I was a kid, Junior High, I had to have four teeth cut out for braces.  In those days they used Sodium Penathol, the truth serum.  When I woke up the first thing I saw was cleevage like I had never seen before inches from my face as the dental hygienist bent over me.  Unable to control myself, first thing I say is "Nice Tits", gave them a big head wiggle with my nose buried between those two monsters, then promptly threw up all over her.

Now that's something you remember for a lifetime.

Tj