Patient story · Deciding
'I'd just been getting extractions done as needed, until I thought - there's no point sinking money into this.'
Hear it on the podcast
Bri had been having teeth pulled one at a time until she asked where it would end.
Before
Over the years Bri's teeth failed one at a time, and each one was dealt with as it went.
"For years now — up until I started looking into dental implant clinics — I had just been getting extractions done as needed."
Her reason was simple.
"Teeth were getting too infected and abscessed and decaying and crumbling apart, to the point where I'm like - I don't even want to try to save these. There's no point in sinking my money into this."
A lot of people reach that point and stop there, because the alternative looks unaffordable. Bri went on and got prices.
What she was offered
She went to her own dentist first, and then to another practice locally. Between them she was given a per-tooth price for replacing teeth individually, a price for full arches, and a third plan combining a removable upper with a different approach on the lower.
We won't repeat the figures, since she gave them from memory and we can't know what each one included. One of the options she was offered stuck with her:
"One is do nothing, treat problems as they arise. And I was like - well, I'm doing that anyways."
Many people are right there, carrying on the way they always have.
Documenting it in public
Bri shared the process online, before and during, including photos of her natural teeth.
"People have so many questions and assumptions that I like to clear up and answer."
What happened next is why her story is here.
"A lot of people also tell me that just posting, me posting my experience in general - whether showing my natural teeth or showing this process - made them feel a lot better about their situation, and it actually gave them the courage to start reaching out to dental clinics."
She means dental clinics in general, not only ours. Seeing someone in the same position go first gave people the push they needed.
How she got here
The people following along paid for her travel. That's part of why she was happy to share the whole thing in public.
Where she is now
Bri told her story partway through treatment, not years later, and she's open that she is still in it.
Outcomes vary. The quotes Bri received elsewhere are her own memory of other practices, and we can't verify them.
This page was built from the recording of Ep. 62. 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.