Patient story · When something failed
'I didn't even know they had failed'
Hear it on the podcast
Alex didn't even know two of her implants had failed until her yearly cleanings, and both were replaced.
Before
Alex's dental troubles started in childhood and never let up.
It began with a frightening visit, when a dentist shouted at her and her mother took her out of the office. Braces at twelve that had to come off early because of root resorption. Cavities, fillings, fillings falling out, more fillings.
Then her father lost his job, the family lost its insurance, and the dentist stopped being an option.
"Things just kind of went bad."
At sixteen, impacted wisdom teeth. At seventeen, her teeth began breaking. Five were removed, all molars.
At eighteen she qualified for state coverage on her own. A small practice performed root canals on every remaining tooth, built them up, and crowned all of them. It took a year.
"Within a year, the crowns started popping off. I started getting infections. And then I was back to getting more teeth pulled."
The specialist she saw could not redo the work. She looked into implants and was quoted thirty-five thousand dollars per arch. She was waitressing.
"So eventually I just kind of accepted that there was nothing else I could really do."
The dentures
At twenty-one she had her upper teeth removed and was fitted with a denture. She couldn't tolerate it. The part covering the roof of her mouth made her gag constantly, and her dentist wouldn't trim it back enough.
So she did it herself.
"I went on YouTube. And then I got my own Dremel."
She removed the entire palate, packed it with relining material she bought online, and glued it in. Her dentist, at the next visit, asked what on earth she had done.
A year later she had the lower teeth removed too, and something changed.
"At that point I was thriving in them. I was eating corn on the cob - your mouth learns, like muscle memory."
She wore them for two or three years.
Why she started posting
During lockdown she joined a support group for denture wearers and began posting about what she was eating and how she was managing. Then TikTok, where her following grew quickly.
That isn't really like her.
"Even looking back now, it's pretty crazy. Because I'm actually more quiet again."
That's how we met her. She was talking openly about something almost nobody discusses in public, and she was good at it.
Not too young
Alex had her treatment in her twenties, and she came to us with very little bone for her age.
People often assume full-arch patients are elderly. Many aren't, and being young doesn't make the problem wait.
"You're a young person with a bright future ahead of you, with a really crappy amount of bone, that was just absolutely forced into this scenario. And there's a lot of that."
Her low bone changed the plan. We placed her implants conservatively, so other options stayed open for later.
Then two implants failed
This is the main reason Alex agreed to share her story.
At her first annual cleaning, an implant had failed.
"I didn't even know they had failed - I felt like just a tingle. It's weird. It's not super painful."
There was no infection and no swelling. It was removed and a new one placed at the same visit.
"You took it right out - I didn't even feel it. Put my teeth back in."
A year later, at her next cleaning, another one. That one was removed, the site grafted, left to heal for three months, and a new implant placed.
At her most recent visit it was solid.
She had been terrified of exactly this before her surgery.
"That was one of my biggest fears. I don't want to go through any more pain, infection. I was so scared of implants failing."
Then it happened twice, and she says it turned out to be no big deal.
A failed implant needs prompt care. It isn't a catastrophe, and it doesn't undo the treatment. Today she is essentially where she was the day her first implants went in.
Along the way we adjusted her design more than once. One small change to her bite largely cleared up jaw pain she had lived with.
"I almost have no pain now. So whatever Dr. Laks did last year - and she just made very, very small changes. Like we didn’t even change the aesthetics."
Now
Alex works for us now. She's often the first voice new patients hear when they call.
If you call feeling embarrassed and half-expecting to be judged, sure your case is the worst anyone has seen, you'll be talking to someone who has been exactly where you are.
"If you feel scared or ashamed about anything, Alex is the same on the phone as she is here. No one's here to hurt you or make you feel bad."
What she ate first
Corn on the cob, which she had been managing on dentures and wanted back properly. Then salad with croutons. Crunchy tacos. Pizza with a real crust, eaten with her hands rather than cut up with a fork.
Outcomes vary from person to person.
This page was built from the recording of Ep. 49. The quotations are edited to read on the page: filler words taken out, repeated words dropped, a dash for a hesitation or for words left out. Nothing added, nothing reordered, nothing put in the speaker's mouth.