Prosthodontist

Cool title for a doctor who makes oral Prostheses! I went and saw him this morning... And to my relief he was much different from the resident that I had been seeing at the Mayo Clinic. Yes, I know that the Mayo is prestigious and all, but I never saw an actual doctor, the only people that I met with were residents (other than the day of surgery, the surgeon who performed the palatal removal, who I have not seen since).

I talked to Dr. Lund, my new prosthodontist, about that today. He apologized immensely for the 'Bad Politics' of big hospitals and/or clinics. He continuously shook his head in disappointment while he asked about all of my experiences (i.e. water, food, and anything else that went into my mouth coming out of my nose... among other things that I had to endure). But it is all behind me now, and I have a great doctor now who was extremely informative and thorough about everything that is going on with my mouth.

Some things are going to be changing, all of them for the good, but there may be some bad affects. My tissue is quite inflamed on my pallet (he said it is similar to gingivitis) due to my mouth piece staying in all the time (which was suggested by the Mao Prosthodontist). So I am going to start removing my mouth piece while I am sleeping at night. The only time I ever remove it is to clean my mouth, or brush my teeth. He said that the tissue will start to change shape and the hole may open a little more, allowing more liquid and food into the nasal canal. But, if that is the case I can call him right away and he will make adjustments to my mouth piece to prevent anything from entering my nose. He did say that the hole will never fully close, but it will probably get very small which is very manageable.

So, it was a great day meeting him. He made some much needed adjustments to my current mouth piece now, and we will wait for all the changes in my mouth to take place before we make a more permanent piece.

I will see him in another two weeks.