Nothing can get him down

Last week, I visited my brother, who has Down Syndrome.

Frank was still recovering from the 4th or 5th pneunomia in 2 years time. Earlier this year, he had a stroke. Yet he was on a short holiday and even visited a pop festival (dancing in his wheelchair.) He seems to have at least as many lives as cats.

My brother misses two front teeth: one in the upper jaw, one in the lower. He is not embarressed and his smile ranges 'from ear to ear'. No problems with self-esteem, because he never thinks about what other people may say. In many ways, his life is so much easier than ours.


Missing teeth can be replaced by partial dentures, bridges or dental implants. The difference is not just the price. Many people have huge problems with ill-fitting and bad looking partial dentures. For a bridge, some healthy teeth need to be drilled down to stumps and the problem with dental implants is that... uhm... let me think....uhm.... Sorry, cannot think of one now.


By the way, my brother would reject all options. On the day that he needed local anaesthesia for an extraction, I saw three dentists and a bottle of laughing gas failing. In the end, the simple extraction was done at the hospital, using full anaesthetics.