Limited opening and impressions

need_help · medicine forum beginner Joined: 26 Apr 2006 Posts: 6

I have had over 25 oral surgeries, including cancer 4 times. I have
thick bands of scar tissue that reduces how far my mouth will open. I
have lost some soft and hard pallette, portions of my upper jaw, all
upper teeth and had nearly all my gums excised and grown back multiple
times. I had a scar release surgery in 2004. I am very
surgery/anesthesic phobic...no terror. I saw (supposedly) the best
person in my city for a dental prosthetic today. He said that I need
more surgery to release scar tissue so he can get an impression. The
device that holds the impression material won't fit into my mouth. I
have no upper teeth and the individual that was supposed to be my best
chance said he can't help me. Surely there is some way to get an
impression of my upper jaw (what remains of it) without more surgery.
Why can't modern dentistry (with so many new advances) find a way to
get an impression on those like me that cannot open their mouth very
wide? Help. Please...can someone help me. I went to a major university
dental clinic and they could not help me. Isn't there something that
can be done?

Joel M. Eichen · medicine forum Guru Joined: 24 Mar 2005 Posts: 4062

I have helped some folks by using their old denture
for my impression with molding the borders with wax.
Perhaps you could use this technique to install first an
undersized impression and then subsequent enlarging i
t inside the mouth using the wax border-molding.

Finally a decent impression .....

Joel

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need_help · medicine forum beginner Joined: 26 Apr 2006 Posts: 6

Thank you for your input, Joel. I've never had a denture. Because of of
these thick bands of scar tissue, no dentist has been able to work on
me since before surgery of 1993. Since that time, as teeth became
diseased, fractured or too painful, they have been extracted either
during oral surgery or by a local oral surgeon. The only orthotic that
was fitted for me was was back in 1999, when they got an initial
impression before excision of part of my jaw, some teeth and part of my
palette. This orthotic was useless and cosmetic only. The next year, it
was made useless because of additional surgeries which again changed
the geography of my mouth. I have "gotten by" with only three upper
teeth (incisors and a canine) for most of the last 4 years. Of course,
these teeth were never meant to chew and (eventually....one by one)
they became so worn down and painful that they had to be extracted. The
last of which was pulled in March. Apparently, there is no recourse. I
am 58 years old and with no possibility of upper teeth, I will
certainly never again smile in public. I am quite disappointed. You'd
think that the best from the University of Pittsburgh could find a way.

What about a scanner that the University of Hiroshima developed with a
software company (Orange House) that is supposed to create 3D
impressions without use of typical impression devices? Has anyone ever
heard of this?

Could OrthoCAD be used to make an impression in some manner?

Any thoughts?

Thank you.

Google