Mrs W first came to Elmsleigh House for a new patient examination several years ago. She was very nervous due to previous bad dental experiences and had not seen a dentist for many years as a result.
Kit Spears performed a thorough dental examination, including x-ray pictures. He found that she had lost many of her teeth and that her remaining teeth had some degree of mobility due to gum disease, which was making her mouth uncomfortable and eating difficult. This meant she had lost supporting jawbone around her teeth, resulting in a poor prognosis to save her existing teeth, which would need to be removed. As a result, Mrs W wanted to explore the options for replacing all her teeth.
Kit discussed all options for replacing all Mrs W’s teeth, including removable dentures, implant-stabilised dentures and implant-retained fixed bridges.
Before removing all remaining teeth, Mrs W saw our Clinical Dental Technician to have temporary upper and lower dentures made. Once the dentures were ready for fitting, Kit removed her remaining teeth and the dentures fitted to ensure Mrs W had replacement teeth while her gums and bone were healing.
After two months, Mrs W returned to see Kit, who reviewed healing and discussed all options to replace her teeth in detail. Mrs W did not want dentures for the long-term and wanted a more permanent replacement. Kit worked through planning stages for implant-retained bridges, including making trial acrylic teeth to ensure the look, position and bite were correct. He then performed a cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) scan with the trial teeth in place to get precise, high-resolution 3D images of Mrs W’s mouth to look at the exact position, thickness and density of her jawbone, and the position of the teeth relative to bone position.
He was then able to proceed with implant-retained bridges, working on her lower arch first. Four dental implants were placed in her lower arch and her denture adjusted to allow for healing. After a few months, these were uncovered and Mrs W wanted provisional teeth fitted in place while she had four implants placed in her upper arch. Once these implants were placed and her upper denture adjusted to allow for healing, Kit could proceed with making her upper and lower implant bridges. He took time and care to ensure the bite, fit and look of her replacement teeth were correct over several stages.
Once both Mrs W and Kit were happy with the implant bridges in terms of look, fit and function, they were definitively fitted to her four upper and four lower implants, which held them securely in position.
“I had lost confidence socially and found eating increasingly difficult so the time was well overdue to sort out my teeth. It came as no surprise that it was necessary to remove all of my teeth and start the process of implanting new teeth both in my top and bottom gums... Throughout the treatment Kit Spears was not only very professional but also extremely kind and thoughtful. It was a long process but that was partly because of my decision to stagger the treatment... The most difficult time was at the early stages when it was necessary to use dentures until my gum healed after surgery... I am now absolutely thrilled with my new teeth... Most importantly, I have regained my self-confidence and will be forever grateful to Kit Spears and the Elmsleigh House team for the outstanding treatment and care I received!” Mrs W.
To book a dental implants consultation with our expert team, call 01252 713797 or click here for a callback online.
