At one time or another, denture wearers will face some issues with their dentures. Since The Villages, Fl is a active retired community with median age of 67 years it has a lot patients who have been wearing dentures and or need dentures. Amongst these denture wearers some of the villagers have had implant supported dentures which were done years ago. I have been making dentures for years and have made thousands of dentures and during that time I have come across various kind of implant denture cases like dentures made over mini implants, all on four dentures, fixed hybrid dentures, bar supported dentures, overdentures, hader bar supported dentures, etc.
The patient population in the villages is unique in a way because some of these patients have had implant supported dentures made by dentists who are retired which makes it difficult to find the implant system used in their mouth. Also some of the methods used to make dentures on these implants is obsolete and dealing with cases like these is like opening a can of worms since you may not have the tools to deal with the case after you start the case. Hence dealing with cases like these requires excellent clinical skills and extensive implant education and knowledge.
One of such complex cases was Frank who came to see my in dental office in The Villages, Florida to get his denture fixed. I was the fourth dentist who Frank was getting an opinion on how to fix his denture. Frank’s case was rather very complicated since he had got 11 dental implants in his upper jaw which were done over 30 years ago in Philadelphia. The implants were connected together by two separate bars over which the denture was made. Frank had fractured both the bars and his denture was falling apart with crack lines and teeth coming off it. Frank had gone to three other dentists looking to find a solution for his problem, but his case was very complex to be treated by a regular general dentist and hence the dentists he had seen before coming to me were not able to help him.
I am so happy that Frank came to me since I love taking on challenging implant cases. I have done hundreds of successful implant surgeries and I am very comfortable treating complex implant cases. After doing Frank’s clinical exam and taking a 3D cone beam scan I was able to identify the problem Frank was having and I told Frank that how I would approach his case. Frank felt comfortable with the plan I made for him and agreed to move forward with the treatment.
I know that Frank’s dental surgery was going to be rather complicated and hence I was prepared to encounter whatever came my way with all my implant tools and four different of kind implant kits. Frank had a rather unique denture-implant-abutment-bar assembly and there was no mention of such kind of appliance in the literature. Hence, I had to innovate in order to remove the abutment-bar assembly in a non-invasive way and at the same time try to salvage as many implants as possible. After four hours of surgery I was successfully able to remove the bars and salvage 7 out of the 11 implants.
Four weeks later I saw Frank today to deliver his new implant supported overdenture. Frank had his doubts because he did not know whether the new denture is going to be as snug as his old denture. I had set Frank’s expectations really low so he was not expecting much out of this denture, but after I delivered his new overdenture Frank was extremely pleased with the fit and the esthetics of the new denture. His new denture was fit over seven dental implants and was extremely snug.
I was extremely satisfied to see the outcome and all the hard work I had put in to so far help me bring smile on Frank’s face. Implant cases can be challenging but if done correctly by an experienced implant dentist it can help improve the quality of the life of the patients. I love treating the villages community and find a great deal of professional satisfaction in help people like Frank in my dental practice.