Dr. Sanda Moldovan performs an All-on-4 dental implant procedure on a patient named Paula, restoring her full smile with implants and bridges. The video shows Paula and her family's reactions after the treatment.
What's going to happen is we're going to keep all her bottom teeth. We're going to put a beautiful temporary bridge. And on the top, what we're going to do is a procedure called all on four, because we're going to use four implants to stabilize a full set of teeth. Because she hasn't had back teeth in a long time, Paula's bite is completely out of whack. So what we have to do is rebalance her muscles and find out where the correct bite is for her new smile. And we did that using a TENS machine, which actually does electrical stimulation of the muscles to relax them in the right bite. I'm going to be able to express the joy I have on the inside, on the outside, after today. Now that Paula's sedated, Dr. Simon will go in and start preparing her lower teeth. He is lasering the gums to make them all even for the bottom. Now that he's done with the lasering, he's going to be removing all the old fillings and recontouring the teeth. We're taking an impression right now so we can finalize the bridge outside of her mouth. While I'm working on the top, first thing I'm going to do is use a piezoelectric machine to detach a little muscle attachment that engages the teeth into the jawbone so the teeth will come out really easy. Here we are. We're gonna take out seven teeth total. We actually save the bone and we recycle it. I'm ready to start repairing the implant beds where the implants will lie. So I'm gonna start preparing the beds, starting with the right one. Okay, so now that we put in the four implants, I'm gonna use that recycled bone to plug in the holes left behind. We are ready to attach the abutment onto the implants so we can support the teeth. Dr. Simon is going to take an impression to relate the implant position to Greg, who's going to fabricate the teeth. Now that we've placed the implants and the abutments, we're going to take the bridge and finalize it in the lab. And finally, our last step, putting in the upper and lower bridges. Smile. Beautiful.
I have to tell you, I'm really looking forward to seeing Paula's new smile. This was just yesterday. How did she do with this?
It was amazing. She is such an amazing person because after really hours of the procedure, she was still smiling. She came out of there smiling and excited.
They weren't smiling. Watching the procedure. I can Tell you that.
And we have Paula's fan club here in the audience.
We have her daughter.
We have her daughter, Kristen, Kirsten. I'm sorry, her sister's high. Heidi and Ingrid and her son Anthony. And you guys haven't seen Paula since she had the procedure?
No, this happened yesterday. Paula has not seen her new smile. I want to remind everybody, Paula hasn't. We haven't. This is what Paula looked like before yesterday. And are we all ready?
Are we ready?
Are you ready, Paula? Come on out. Paula, here. Paula, here. Paula. Paula, look at the reaction from your family here. I love you.
Now have your lips back.
Oh, my. Now, Paula, I want you to go stand in front of this chair because I think it's time. I want to show everyone a side by side before and after. And then we're going to let you see Paulie for yourself, the amazing work that these dentists have done for you and your smile. You see yourself, Polly. You see? Thank you.
Unbelievable.
And Dr. Simon, explain to us why giving back her teeth and the supporting structures around the teeth just make her face look overall better.
Absolutely. When you're missing your back teeth for a long time, what happens is all the muscles sink in, so you lose the dimension of your face and your face shrinks. So we are able to give you the volume back and the length back by giving you the contours of the teeth. So we build that out.
Sand. I want to show some footage of what you did in an animation so that of course, everyone who is having trouble watching the surgery will understand what you did. So this is, of course, what Paula was dealing with initially.
Yeah, Travis. So what we have is like big decay right here. We have gums that are really, really inflamed. Because when you don't have teeth in the back there, what she was using is using her front teeth for everything. So they really got a beating. So you could see here how beat up even her old fillings were. And her teeth really started shifting because when you're overusing them, that's what happened.
Even her teeth that remain were severely damaged. Right. So you had to go do a fairly significant procedure and walk us through what you're showing us here.
The amazing thing about this all on four treatment concept is that we're actually saving money and we could use bone that we do have available. So we're placing four implants and we avoid any kind of bone grafting. So ultimately, it's a minimally invasive procedure. That's why Paul actually looks as good as she does, because she doesn't have any of the bruising and swelling associated with bone grafting procedures that we would do traditionally.
Paul, you ready? You ready to do some modeling again? I mean, that is just, to me, remarkable. In one day, everyone. One day. That's one day. Dr. Sander and Dr. Moldavan, thank you.
