Need Advice about Impressions!

[Guest guest]

Hi All and A Very Happy New Year!

For those who know me, this will be no surprise. To the newbies,

here's the deal. I have a horrible time with impressions. I gag up

a storm and pretty much come close to passing out. I thought my

surgeon and I had a solution that worked ... he now uses what they

call " the banana spray " to topically numb my gumline/tongue, back of

mouth to get me through it. Sometimes it works, others not so much.

Well, I am post-op from a July 2002 surgery but need an additional

surgery in January to fix a screwed-up midline. I was to get

impressions last week and guess what? Couldn't do it. I still have

some numbness in my gums and some areas are super-sensitive. Once

that tray got halfway in there, the gag-fest began worse than ever.

I tried the spray and it didn't even begin to make me numb, almost as

if the " coming back to life " nerves are layers deep that we can't get

to with the numbing spray. Well, I tried and tried, and I ended up

in tears in their office. Surgeon wasn't there, the assistant had

him call me. I told him he had to put me to sleep or something (I

read someone here had that done) and he told me he couldn't do it

without a breathing tube and didn't think that was the way to go.

He's going to try to get me what are called " triple trays " that he

told me dentists use for getting impressions of teeth that need

crowns. He said the are not full trays, and might work better.

Anyone ever heard of them? Anyone out there have horrible times with

impressions and any advice? If these triple trays don't work, I

don't know how I'm ever going to get the impressions I'm sure he'll

need for my next surgery.

Thanks for reading.

Irish!