What are Same Day Teeth and who are they for?

If you prefer to read the interview here is a transcription for you:

Patients always ask me what same day teeth is, what does it involve?

Same day teeth at Kiss Dental, my clinic that I work at is basically when patients are coming in with either no teeth, missing teeth or really failing full upper and lower teeth through periodontal disease or patients that have neglected their teeth. What we can do is we can remove the remaining failing teeth, on the same day. And simultaneously we can place a minimum of four implants both in the top jaw and in the bottom jaw if necessary. And of those implants we can fix bridge work – same day as well.

They essentially walk in with no teeth, missing teeth or failing teeth and walk out with a new beautiful smile all secured by dental implants, all done in the same day. The same day teeth treatment is a treatment that it is extensive. There’s a lot involved. The patient needs to understand that.

To help put the patient at ease we can sometimes intravenously sedate the patient so they’re more relaxed. They sometimes can almost fall asleep during the treatment time which is really helpful because there’s a lot of anaesthetic involved.

In the surgery we’re going to be taking teeth out which in itself can be quite traumatic. We’re going to be drilling the bone to place dental implants which again is quite traumatic but at the end of that full day of treatment the patient does get to walk out with a fully fixed smile.

They’re walking in with failing teeth, missing teeth and walking out with a beautiful fixed smile.

What happens after the treatment?

Once the surgery is completed and the patient has left the practice with their fixed smile. That’s not the end of the story.

They’re initially bruised, swollen in quite a bit of discomfort at least for the first couple of days to the first week. We prescribe antibiotics, pain relief, antiseptic mouthwashes and initially they’re told that they need to stick to a soft light diet and ensure that they’re not chewing on anything too hard.

I always say if it cracks, pops or clicks, don’t eat it. But once they kind of get used to that and once they get use to their new teeth and new smile within weeks they’re functioning better, they’re smiling better, the swelling has gone down, the bruising has gone down, all of that is just temporary.

What they are left with then is that beautiful smile.

So once the initial healing has taken place and the patient is past their two to three-week review period. What we can see is that then the implants need the full time to heal.

We generally ask twelve weeks of healing before we then think about fabricating the final teeth. The teeth they leave with on the same day smile is essentially fixed but it’s a temporary bridge.

 

 The final teeth generally will last, between 10 and 15 years.

The final bridge work is constructed once all the gums have healed, all the surgery is settled, all the implants have healed and then we can make the final teeth which have got more strength in them for the long term.

How long do they last?

The final teeth generally will last, dependent upon construction material, between 10 and 15 years. The implants themselves have got good success rates to show that 15 years plus is what these patients should be getting out of this style of work.

People always ask me “are dental implants forever?”

I always say nothing’s forever but if you look after them well, if you maintain them well, if you see your dentist regularly, see the hygienist regularly, because that’s equally important around implants as it is teeth, you should get decent longevity out of this style of work.

The treatment of the same day teeth isn’t age specific. The key consideration is how the patient presents. I’ve done this style of treatment for someone as young as 24/25. They’ve had severe neglect, they’ve had medical conditions which has meant they’ve lost their teeth at a very early age. I’ve done it though on patients that are up to 80/90 years old because these patients have lost their teeth eventually just due to wear and function those patients equally said the same thing the 24 year old said – “I do not want to wear a denture, I do not want to wear something removable”.

Therefore the same day smile solution gives them the ability to keep everything fixed.

Is it worth it?

I’ve done probably over a thousand same day smiles in my career up to now. And yes, I suppose you listen to what I’ve discussed about the surgical aspects, the healing aspects, the bruising, the tenderness, the swelling that can take place and all these things will probably scare you to a degree.

But what I would say to you is I have asked every single patient I have ever done this treatment on “If you had to go through it again and spend the money that you spent having it done, would you”?.

And the answer is always the same – one hundred percent worth every penny and one hundred percent worth every little bit of pain swelling and tenderness to get the result that they’ve achieved.

And that is the take home message really. Sometimes you do have to break a few eggs to make an omelette. But in this instance that omelette hopefully is going to taste amazing for that patient and that’s what they’ve got to take home because all the rest of it, it’s temporary but what they’re left with permanently is a fixed functional aesthetic solution.

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