Improved Quality of Life with Permanent Porcelain Implant Bridge

I've had a problem with my upper teeth, especially the front teeth for many years. When I was younger they got chipped, and broken. I had them capped. Eventually the gums receded, the caps became loose, and food was getting in behind the caps, and the teeth started deteriorating. The front was my main issue. I lost the teeth under the caps and I had two posts put in with a bridge across the front. And over the years the same thing they were leaking, food was getting in behind them. One day the posts just snapped, and the teeth came out. Since then I've been dealing with benches mostly across the six front. Then I'd lose another tooth that was ground down to put a bridge in the back, and I always had an issue with the dentures. I never had a denture that fit right. I hate Poligrip denture cream and all of that stuff, everything sticking in it. I went through numerous sets of dentures, and I was never happy with them. They irritated my gums. They never seemed to fit right. I found Dr. Hecht through a recommendation from somebody that I worked with that had a full set of uppers and lowers done. And I said, "It's time to take care of myself. I spent my life taking care of my wife, my kids, my elderly parents. When's my turn? It was time to take care of myself." So I came in and took a look and had an evaluation. I honestly thought I wasn't going to get them. I spoke to Dr. Hecht, Jason and Alex, and I decided to go through with it. They said it could be done and how they were going to do it. They explained everything to me, and we got started. They made me a temporary denture to wear while the implant work was being done. They did such a good job on the temporary denture that I was starting to change my mind. I said, "Why don't I just stick with this?" But it was the best my mouth had felt in years. I had forgotten what it was like to have real teeth to be able to bite into something because even with the dentures, even as good as the last one was, you can't really bite into a apple, bite a piece of steak. You go to bite a salami sandwich and you bite and the salami wouldn't be cut all the way through. I don't want to sound like I'm exaggerating, but it changed a lot of my life. I'm a lot more comfortable. I also have obstructed sleep apnea. I sleep with a mask, and I couldn't even keep the mask on straight when I was wearing the dentures because you take them out at night and the mask had nothing to rest against. So now I sleep better, I eat better, I feel better, my mouth feels so much cleaner. And there hasn't been anything that I've had a problem eating. I'm a lot more comfortable in social situations. I can go out to a restaurant without having to run to the bathroom to stick my teeth in or to take them out because a sesame seed or something got in behind it, and it's irritating my gums. It's so much better. Dr. [inaudible 00:02:58] was great to work with. Any questions, they explain them. I won't say it was totally pain free. The first day when they did the work, when they did the major part of the work you're going to experience some minor discomfort. A little more than minor discomfort, after they are done working. While they were working, it was fine. I did need some medication the next day, but after that it was pretty much painless. They are very concerned about your comfort and I'm asleep. When I had an appointment with Doctor Hecht, when I came in and if I had an 11:00 appointment and I was there at 11, I was in the chair at 11 being worked on. He didn't waste my time. It's not like if you had an 11:00 appointment and oh well we had a couple emergencies and you're sitting there at two o'clock on the afternoon and still haven't been taken care of. The time I spent here was spent in the chair being worked on, not sitting in a waiting room thumbing through magazines. I thought that was very considerate of them.