Is Teeth in a Day a good option for you? Hi, I’m Dr. Brett Langston. I’m a prosthodontist and owner of Dental Implant and Aesthetic Specialist here in Brookhaven, Georgia, and I’m here to help you watch your mouth.
So if you’re wondering what’s the ideal candidate for Teeth in a Day? What is Teeth in a Day? How do I know if that’s right for me? I’m just going to give you an overview of my general approach to what I look for in a Teeth in a Day candidate. So for those of you unfamiliar Teeth in a Day is essentially a patient that has failing teeth, top or bottom, sometimes both that are at the point where we can’t save them anymore and we can’t restore those teeth. And so we’ve reached the point where we have to take those teeth out.
The Teeth in a Day Process
One option that we have is called the Teeth in a Day process where through a lot of planning, a lot of foresight, a lot of work ahead of time, we plan a surgical day where we take the teeth out, we place titanium implants in the bone, and we actually attach a Teeth in a Day appliance to those teeth and the patient will leave that day with a brand new smile and they’ll function and wear that. It stays in their mouth, there’s no removing it, and they keep it in there for about three to four months. And then we start the process of making the permanent version of that Teeth in a Day appliance.
Successful Teeth in a Day Cases
So for me, the most successful cases we have with Teeth in a Day cover patients that have good bone, but just as importantly, patients have a good attitude. If you come in fearful, if you come in with poor hygiene, if you come in not caring about the end result, it’s going to be hard for me to provide you with something that makes you happy. So if you come in and we work together, we sit down, I can walk you through the options. I can show you some before and afters and really get you excited about what we can do for you. That plays a huge role in the success of the case.
So in addition to having the right attitude and being a team member with us because we’re involved together, the old joke is with Teeth in a Day, you’re married to those patients, which is great. I love it. We’re going to spend a lot of time together. So if you’re passionate about it, I’m passionate about it. I know the end result’s going to be great.
Is Age a Factor?
One thing that really doesn’t concern me is age. And I know everybody thinks either I’m too young, I’m too old. That does not really play a role. The most important thing for me is bone quality. We want to work around if you’re on any kind of bisphosphonates, if you’re a smoker, or if you have uncontrolled diabetes, these are all things that we need to address and these are all things that we need to talk about. So generally speaking, the only people that we are not able to do this procedure on fall into the category of medically compromised patients.
Other Factors
So whether that’s uncontrolled diabetes that we can’t fix the long history of bisphosphonates in general, there’s two factors that make you not a candidate. Either you aren’t going to be able to heal well or you don’t have the quality bone that we’re looking for. And generally speaking, if you still have your teeth, you usually have enough bone for us to work with. A lot of times if you’ve been missing all your teeth for a long time, the body has gone through the process of remodeling, and that any bone that we would’ve had to grab onto is gone. And so that’s something that we need to consider when we come in for our initial meeting is we’re going to do a three-dimensional cone beam scan to kind of determine and see where that bone is. A lot of times if patients have only had their front teeth and they’ve been missing their back teeth for a long time, we have to do some adjunctive procedures, whether that’s bone grafting, whether it’s sinus lifts, nothing’s impossible.
So it’s always worth a conversation to come in and kind of meet us, let us talk to you, let us do a full comprehensive evaluation, and then we can kind of sit down and look at how we could achieve this goal together.
Is Teeth in a Day Worth it?
So the teeth of the day process might sound overwhelming, might sound like a lot of work, might sound a lot of sitting financial and time investment, but it’s absolutely worth it. One thing to keep in mind is that most people don’t think about how often they use their mouth. And a lot of times in your own personal life, think back to when you had a toothache. Before that tooth started hurting, you didn’t even think about your mouth. But then all of a sudden when that tooth gave you problems, 24/7 always on your mind. So it is a significant investment in time, but you’re really setting yourself up for lifelong success as opposed to constantly being worried about which tooth is going to hurt next, where’s this going to fail? Because teeth rarely fail at a convenient time.
I like to tell patients they always break on a Friday night or when they’re headed out of town. And so if we can proactively address teeth that we are concerned about, we can kind of set you up for success long-term for a mouth that functions, it doesn’t have to be taken in and out. It’s going to be very much like your natural teeth. You’re going to be able to chew, you’re going to be able to talk, you’re going to be able to eat corn on the cob, you’re going to be able to sing in the choir, you’re going to be able to go on dates, you’re going to live a full healthy life, not having to worry about your mouth.
So while there are a few medical or habitual situations as smoking, or diabetes, that might present issues for us in planning, these are things that we can work with and overcome.
So if you fall into a category that makes you concerned you might not be a candidate for Teeth in a Day, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t come in and talk to us. Let us sit down, let us look at your own personal situation, and we can find ways to work around and get your mouth healthy enough and prepared enough for the Teeth in a Day process.
There’s a lot of planning, there’s a lot of working ahead of time, but at the end of the day, a lot of that work is on us so that when we get to the day of surgery, you can relax and let us do our magic.
Contact Dr. Brett Langston Today
So if you found this information helpful and spurred on some questions about your own mouth and about whether you’re a candidate for Teeth in a Day, please call us. We’d love to have you come in. We’d love to have you meet the team. We’d love to do a full evaluation and see if you are a candidate for Teeth in a Day. And if not, we can come up with options that might be better for your situation.
So again, I’m Dr. Brett Langston, owner Prosthodontist at Dental Implant and Aesthetic Specialist, and I’m here to help you watch your mouth.