A lady named Stephanie came to a cosmetic dentist for dental implants in her upper and lower jaws. She had already come to believe there was no way to save the existing teeth that remained. She was a practicing nurse, and knew a great deal about medicine herself. Years before, a series of unfortunate events had caused her to lose several teeth on her upper jaw, as well as some of the teeth on the lower jaw. At that time dental implants were not an option for her, so Stephanie was fitted with a removable, upper partial denture. There was not denture fitted to her lower jaw due to the fact that the lower teeth she had lost were in random places that prohibited the fitting of a denture here.
This resulted in two negatives which made eating both embarrassing and uncomfortable. To begin with, the upper denture never fit very well, and it always made clicking sounds when Stephanie ate. Other than dinner with her husband, she avoided eating around friends and family as much as possible, and always snuck away from coworkers on her lunch break at the hospital. Because there was no denture on the bottom of her mouth, the upper natural teeth bore most of the pressure of chewing. Over the years, the overload had caused the teeth on the upper jaw to wear down and become loose. By the time she came to us, Stephanie was running the risk of losing these teeth as well.
We began by conducting a series of x-rays to determine the amount of remaining bone mass in both the upper and lower jaws. It is necessary for us to x-ray the jaw bone any time we place dental implants. In order for the titanium base of the implant, which is shaped like a screw, to firmly set in the bone, the jaw must have sufficient surface mass to accommodate the implant. Bones can lose surface mass when teeth are lost because they tend to recede when there are no tooth roots for them to grow around. In such cases, a combination of implants and fixed bridgework is needed for a full mouth restoration. Dental implants are placed in locations which will support osseointegration (the process by which bone grows around the titanium base). Bridges are then attached to the porcelain crowns that are used to cap implants. This is preferable to fixing bridges to natural, healthy teeth, because bridgework places a strain on tooth enamel and can damage an otherwise healthy tooth.
Because Stephanie had lived for many years with missing teeth, she had experienced an amount of bone loss typical of someone in her situation. Fortunately, however, there were several places in both the upper and lower jaws that allowed us to place dental implants successfully. After the post-operative healing phase, Stephanie came back for a second visit which involved reconstructing the remainder of her smile with fixed bridgework. We also placed a few porcelain crowns over teeth that were visibly worn and strained from years of overload.
The end result was a bright, new smile for Stephanie that look as natural and healthy as the one she had had years ago. She now loves to eat with friends and family, and enjoys the new freedom of diet her new dental implants allow her to eat.
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