Senior News October, 2003 Vol. 24. No. 8

 

Published by the Humboldt Senior Resource Center in Eureka, California. HSRC is a non-profit community-based organization offering services for senior citizens, multi-generational families and caregivers.

Retirement brought her wit and wisdom to Senior News

When does Medicare pay for motorized wheelchairs or scooters?

Think About It: Thou shalt have teeth

Breast cancer misunderstanding is perpetuated

Sprouts-the lowliest can be the best

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Think About It: Thou shalt have teeth
by Ruth Mountaingrove

When I left the East coast for the West I had a brand-new implanted bridge with a platinum backing. Twenty years later, at 60, that bridge dropped out. It was my upper front teeth.

My dentist in Philadelphia who made the bridge told me to keep my remaining teeth as long as possible. He said there is no substitute for your own teeth. An Oregon dentist underlined this.

I began losing teeth at an early age, partly from an inherited tendency to soft teeth, partly from poor nutrition during my mother's pregnancy. Not much was known then of the importance of food for a mother's health. My mother had all her teeth pulled at age 35 in an attempt to stop a debilitating illness. It must have stopped it since she lived another 30 years wearing those uncomfortable plates.

But I chose not to replace my bridge. I had some fears that as I lost teeth that loss would make speaking difficult. This did not happen. What I found was that I simply had to adjust to a different contour of my mouth. I could still speak distinctly-very important, since I produce a radio program Through the Eyes of Women for KHSU-FM and read my poetry at Open Mike.

The other fear was that I would not be able to eat certain foods-and it's true I can't eat raw apples without slicing them thin. As a vegetarian I eat little meat, at most chicken or fish. Vegetables cut up and steamed over rice, baked fish and fruits that are ripe are all part of what I eat. So why do so many people by the age of 60 have false teeth? Who persuades them that this is necessary? Probably their dentist-but more, I think it is cosmetic. Peers expect that others will have a full set of teeth. What happens when you pull all the teeth is that the jaw shrinks and the cheeks sink in. Then the false teeth have to be worn to fill out the mouth.

Is the pressure comfortable? Evidently not since some people take out their plates in the privacy of their homes, only wearing them when they have to go out. And why? >From what I gather, on the whole, false teeth are uncomfortable.

So I wonder, who benefits from the wearing of dentures? The stick-it-to-the-roof-of-your-mouth folks? The supplier of molds? The surgeons who remove all your teeth? The folks who make solutions you can put your dentures in to sleep at night, the solutions that scrub them as you sleep? Not the dentists who have enjoyed drilling out the decay and filling the hole. They are out of business.

How much is the wearing of dentures political? Is there an unwritten law that tells people at a certain age that they must have all their teeth extracted, that now that they are aging this is expected of them if they want to be accepted?

Will I ever wear dentures? After all my teeth are gone I may have to consider that, or a soft or liquid diet. But that is in the future. Ruth Mountaingrove lives in Arcata and is a member of the Senior News Editorial Advisory Board.

Her e-mail is ruth3@humboldt1.com.