Holly, my gosh gurl! Like you needed more craziness glopped onto your dinner plate! I’m so sorry to see you’ve been dealing with shingles. This is one area where I have no experience but I surely hope you’re over the worst of it now and the nerve pain will ease up soon!

You’ve been waiting such a long time to have those final 4 teeth removed so you’re worried shingles might complicate this procedure. If someone has an active case of shingles with symptoms such as the rash or blisters, it’s prudent to postpone dental treatment because it’s possible to spread the infection through skin contact or by airborne aerosol.

But it sounds like you’re well past that stage. If you have lingering nerve pain, I don’t know how that will impact the denture placement. Meaning, when the denture is in your mouth, it will be putting pressure on your cheeks and the outer side of your upper ridge of the palate. You haven’t had any teeth there for a long time so this will feel much different by not only have teeth but to have a rigid piece of plastic pushing up on the outside of the upper ridge into that tender cheek area. Do you have pain in the jaw area on the side with the shingles?
Maybe a good test would be to use your index finger to gently check your mouth inside your upper cheek. See what it feels like to have something pressing on the area where the denture will rest back there…where upper cheek meets the upper jaw ridge. That may give you an idea if this will irritate your ear/cheek or mouth.

Have you discussed this with your dentist or the oral surgeon who’ll be doing the extractions?