I paid nearly $40k for a full-mouth reconstruction. All my teeth were crowned and quite a few had dental implants as well. Almost half the crowns have fallen off and I have nothing but stubbed teeth or implant fixtures in my mouth and eating is one of the most painful things I do. Can you advise me on what to do? My mouth is in pain constantly. I feel stuck because the dentist who did the original work seems to have skipped the country. Now he’s living somewhere in Egypt and I have no way of getting my money back.
Amelia
Dear Amelia,
I am so sorry that this has happened to you. I cannot imagine the pain you’ve been in, not to mention how you must feel like you are starving and unable to eat. Full mouth reconstructions are one of the most advanced procedures there are. I would like you to see an expert implant dentist. This needs to be fixed or not just your oral health will be damaged, your physical health will take a toll, especially as malnutrition kicks in.
I know you’ve already spent a fortune and cannot afford to drop a ton of money, but I want to warn you about looking for the cheapest dentist to fix this or you may end up in even a worse situation than you are in now. You want a dentist with advanced credentials, such as you can see here in Dr. Potts’ bio. You also want to make sure they do extensive diagnostics, including a CT scan. Dental implants are a 3-dimensional procedure and you need 3-dimensional imagery.
They will examine the position and health of your implants. Hopefully, they were placed correctly and won’t have to be removed and re-implanted. The ideal situation would be that the issues were all about bonding technique, but in all honesty, I am thinking it will be more complicated than that, so I just want to prepare you for needing to have all of it re-done. I think you will be able to find a dentist who is qualified and sympathetic to your situation who will allow you to pay this out over time.
This blog is brought to you by Libertyville Dentist Dr. David Potts.