Always Over Build
Question:
Dr.Crapo: I retired twenty years ago. At the time of retirement, I finished up in Calgary with the oil patch and had a great dental plan and a good dentist. He and I played a lot of golf and had a good time. A year later I moved to Victoria. After my wife and I got settled, we found a very good dentist – actually I had a dental emergency, a tooth broke and he got me in right away and solved the problem. When I went back, I found out that my dentist friend in Calgary was more my golfing friend because he left me with a full mouth of silver fillings that were on their last leg. Long story short, I had to have crowns and bridges and a partial denture to put me right. That was fifteen years ago. Three weeks ago a tooth holding the partial broke and had to be extracted. Right away I could feel the difference, because when I chewed on that side my partial would rock. I’ve had such a strong bite and been comfortable all these years, I don’t think I can tolerate this problem. My dentist said I could get implants but I don’t want to lose any more teeth. I want my partial to work well again. Can’t that be done?
Answer:
Implant dentistry has an unlimited number of applications. About a year ago I saw a gentleman with a similar complaint. In his case, he told me that it wasn’t the money (concerning implants), it just wasn’t his style or philosophy. I’m a minimalist he said, “I want you to come up with a solution that allows me to keep my partial, and makes it good and strong. When the anchor tooth was in place I could chew anything – now it’s gone, eating is no fun."
In this gentleman’s case, he had enough bone to place two mini implants so that he could have some of that stability back. It was his upper jaw so a three-month wait was necessary before the two mini implants could be brought into function. At the same time, we were able to uncover the healing area where his anchor tooth had been extracted, place a graft and six months later, place a standard implant. He’s now more stable than he was when the anchor tooth supported the back of his partial denture. He could have gone for the total rehab job, but he said “I like this, it suits who I am".
If we can help, we’d like to. Call 778-410-2080 for a consultation. Based on actual patient cases