It Should Have Been Implants In The First Place

Q: About eight years ago I needed some dental work on my upper front teeth. I was missing the side front teeth; I had ugly gaps there and large fillings and root canals from my front teeth to my molars. At the time, I was told about implants for crowns to replace my missing front side teeth. I thought about it then decided against implants. I was nervous about them and decided that bridges were better for me. Bridges were faster and made all my teeth look nice. The bridges served me well until about a year ago. Then one day as I was dutifully flossing I got a gross smell and foul taste. I swished my mouth, got the taste out and flossed again. I thought to my self “what was that?” Two days later it happened again and then it was every day. I made an appointment with my dentist and he told me that I had bad decay under the front tooth that was smelling and that the tooth couldn’t be saved. The bridge would have to come out and either an implant put in or both bridges come out and one big new bridge put in for proper anchorage. Without that front tooth, the bridge would have nothing to hold it in place. A new implant can’t hold the bridge right away so what am I to do? I wish I’d gone with implants in the first place.

A: There is no question about the complexity of your situation. However, there are avenues that may prove helpful and ensure long lasting results. First your dentist must determine if the teeth on the other side of the failing bridge are in good shape. If they are, he must evaluate removing the bridge without damage to those good teeth. If removing the bridge is possible the extraction of the unsalvageable tooth and grafting the socket is straight forward. You are then left with the good anchor teeth. Once the grafting is done the bridge can be reattached with strong temporary cement that will fix it to the good anchor teeth. The crown of the bridge where there is no tooth support (it was extracted) is secured by bonding it to the tooth it was originally adjacent to. This is done to secure the bridge during healing. In six months when the bone is fully hardened, the bridge is removed and the implants placed. The bridge is then reattached as before until the bone has healed around the implants. At that point crowns can be made for the implants.

If we can help, we’d like to. Call 778-410-2080 for a consultation or visit us today.

Based on actual patient cases

© Calvin Ross Crapo

Victoria Implant Centre 778-410-2080

www.VictoriaImplantCentre.com

Hot Water Heaters and Teeth

Q: What do hot water heaters and teeth have in common? They blow up when you least expect them to – on a weekend when plumbers and dentists are hard to reach – at least that’s my experience. I admit I’m not the best at keeping my teeth clean, but it seems I can’t even see the word “sugar” without getting a hole in my tooth or a crown coming off or an abscess rearing its ugly head. Eighteen months ago, I had six lower teeth left. Two molars, 1 eye tooth and three others. The lower right molar needed a root canal so that was done, the lower left had a crown on it but the tooth was a bit loose. The other teeth just had fillings. Since then, I’ve lost two teeth (several months ago) and then yesterday the top broke off the root canalled molar and the other molar just came out root, crown and all – the whole darn thing! My partial has small pokey clasps sticking into my tongue, now that the teeth are gone and I can’t keep the partial in because there are no teeth left to hang on to. My partial is eighteen months old. How can that happen?! So, I went in right away to another dentist and he said I needed implants and bridge work. That sounds like a major overhaul. What about dentures? I went for the partial denture because I’ve seen how much family members with lower dentures hate them. I didn’t think this would happen to me. What should I do? I work in a medical office and I’m meeting people all day long.

A: If you are down to three teeth and one is broken you have a major challenge - and a tooth, a molar in your case just falls out – that is particularly challenging because it means all the bone that once held that tooth in is gone! Because you started with six teeth and now have three, it’s not just a matter of tooth loss, it’s a matter of bone loss. At best a lower denture can be marginally stable – meaning it stays in place while you eat or talk- and that’s if you have a good amount of bone for it to ride on. When you lose bone to disease the very ridge needed for a denture is compromised if not lost. Stabilizing a denture is now straightforward to those who provide these services. In your situation, it might well be your best option to have implants placed and teeth placed at the same time. Decay will no longer be an issue. Loose dentures, which speed up bone loss will never be a nagging problem. This implant procedure speeds healing, decreases pain during recovery and makes speaking and eating an easy transition.

If we can help, we’d like to. Call 778-410-2080 for a consultation or visit us today.

Based on actual patient cases

© Calvin Ross Crapo

Victoria Implant Centre 778-410-2080

www.VictoriaImplantCentre.com