Part 2 – Extensive Decay & Failing Dental Bridge

This is the second part of the treatment of our 92-year-old patient with upper teeth/bridges that were heavily decayed. Ultimately, the options for the upper jaw were:

1. Do nothing and hope that she never got toothache and infection or the bridge did not fracture. I am sure that you would agree that this is unacceptable to any one especially because the signs that one of these outcomes (toothache, infection, fractured bridge) were ominous.
2. Extraction and replacement with any kind of denture. This option is almost guaranteed to fail because it is ridiculous to expect a 92-year-old to tolerate a denture that covers her palate.
3. Extraction of all the remaining teeth, placement of 4 dental implants and construction of bridge of 12 upper teeth. This is the All-on-4 treatment concept that leads to same day implant teeth. Although this option was the most invasive of all 3 options here, it was the only way to guarantee that she will not have an infection, tooth fracture etc and to also guarantee that she will have a set of teeth for the rest of her life.

The patient and her family agreed with my recommendation of option 3 and we had great success