Anyone had or know anyone with the All-on-four dental procedure?

[Dreamer]

I have multiple problems with my teeth. I am going to West Virginia University Dental School for my dental treatment. I am seeing a Graduate Prosthodontics student. He graduated as a dentist in 2012. He has given me 5 different Treatment Plans ranging in estimated price from a low of approximately $11,500 to a high of $33,000. My DH thinks that I should go with the All-on-Four plan. It is an implant supported fixed prostheses for upper and lower. I would have 6 implants on the upper and 4 on the lower. I am very nervous about this procedure, because it requires that my remaining 22 teeth would need to be pulled. It is expensive and what if something goes wrong. Would appreciate your feedback, especially, if you had it done or know someone who has had it done or what your opinion is if you are a dentist.

I am leaning more toward another treatment plan, which requires crown removal of 6 crowns, root canal treatment on 5 teeth, 4 posts, 2 teeth extractions, 5 crowns, 3 lower fixed bridges, anterior implants and an implant in upper right for an estimated price of $26,000. I would not have as good of esthetics as I would have with the All-on-Four plan.

I have never had good teeth. I brush twice a day, floss every night and use a Prevident Booster Plus, a prescription flouride toothpaste. I have gone to the dentist for twice a year cleanings since my early 30's at least and have gone 4 times per year since approximately 2010.

 

[athena53]

FWIW, I have 4 implants, all replacing molars, and love them. My dentist told me he had a patient who got a full set like they proposed for you and the patient said they changed his life (for the better). In my case, I need to commit to professional cleanings 4 times a year and I'm scrupulous with dental floss plus a Sonicare plus a Waterpik. You may want to ask what you need to do to keep the implants firmly integrated into the jawbones.

 

[W2R]

This is such an extensive treatment, that you might want to get a second opinion just to make sure.

 

[Texas Proud]

My DW is finishing up on two implants on her bottom right... with two bone grafts and all the other stuff, cost is close to $15K....

Now we are about to start on her upper right... she has to have 4 teeth pulled and will have 3 implants that will support the bridge for her teeth... have not received an estimate for total cost, but $2K for extraction and bone graft...

Doc says that in the end she will have over 20 teeth replaced... the vast majority of them have had root canals and doc said that if that happens then the tooth will likely be replaced in 20 to 30 years.... (IIRC what he said)...


I would much prefer that she get all of her teeth done properly at once instead of this constant work that we are doing... Just for the two implants she has been going for two years, with the grafts, healing, implants, crowns, after check when she was bleeding, scraping the teeth, cutting etc. etc... it looks like the end of that, but now we have two more years (maybe) on the other side of her mouth... and after that... who knows which teeth will be a problem....

I guess I should have checked her teeth before getting married.....

 

[Bestwifeever]

My DH thinks that I should go with the All-on-Four plan. It is an implant supported fixed prostheses for upper and lower. I would have 6 implants on the upper and 4 on the lower. I am very nervous about this procedure, because it requires that my remaining 22 teeth would need to be pulled. It is expensive and what if something goes wrong. Would appreciate your feedback, especially, if you had it done or know someone who has had it done or what your opinion is if you are a dentist.

My good friend is having this done in her mid sixties--maybe not the full mouth but a good majority of her teeth. It is not pleasant as she waits a few months for the implant process to finish healing and is wearing temporary bridges (pretty bad ones cosmetically speaking), but she definitely feels the end result is preferable to the alternative continuous working on her teeth. She has lost weight as her dentist said to eat only soft foods--in her case that is not good as she is quite slender already.

A second opinion is a good idea, as is a clear understanding of what could go wrong and how it could be corrected. Good luck!

 

[redduck]

I have multiple problems with my teeth. I am going to West Virginia University Dental School for my dental treatment. I am seeing a Graduate Prosthodontics student. He graduated as a dentist in 2012.

I would recommend obtaining a second opinion. I would also suggest searching for a dentist with much more experience. This fellow has only been a dentist for three years, is a graduate student and probably does not have much of a history of doing the procedures that he has suggested.

 

[Teacher Terry]

After years of expensive dental work trying to save my teeth they all became loose & many started decaying from the inside out. 10 days ago I had all my teeth pulled which was not pleasant. I must eat soft foods for months. I have temporary dentures. I intend to get the permanent denture on the bottom. It won't happen for 4 months. To have teeth pulled & permanent denture is $30,000. If I want to do the top I must wait for a year. NOt sure but I think the cost for that will be $21,000. I went & got more then 1 opinion before doing this. For years my dentist was sure he could save my teeth & I wasted a lot of $, pain & time just to end up with the same result. I have heard that in the end people are happy with the results but it is just a long road to travel.

 

[athena53]

I am leaning more toward another treatment plan, which requires crown removal of 6 crowns, root canal treatment on 5 teeth, 4 posts, 2 teeth extractions, 5 crowns, 3 lower fixed bridges, anterior implants and an implant in upper right for an estimated price of $26,000. I would not have as good of esthetics as I would have with the All-on-Four plan.

That sounds like extended torture, with the risk of more problems down the road with your remaining teeth. You can still end up with an abscess in a tooth that's been root-canalled and end up having it extracted. Bridges break. Crowns fall off. Decay happens under both and many times isn't detected till it's too late to save the tooth. I've been through all of the above and I bet you have, too. (Although the tooth with the abscess was pulled in a clinic in Budapest at the beginning of our vacation, which makes for a great travel story.)

Another thing to consider: I used to hang out on a discussion board called Healthboards and many people with chronic dental problems reported feeling better immediately when all their teeth were extracted. There's a big connection between oral health and general health and getting rid of a source of chronic inflammation/irritation might be good for you.

Good luck with whatever you decide- it won't be an easy road even if there's a happy ending.

 

[Moemg]

I had extensive dental work in my 50's including extractions , braces , replacing teeth , crowns & fixed partials . It was worth it but a long hassle .Since then I have had minimal problems . I would be extremely nervous about having all my teeth pulled . I agree that a second opinion is needed no way would I plunk down that much money to a student no matter how good he is .

 

[Teacher Terry]

My dentist said that she thought my health would be much better because when she pulled my teeth she said they were all decaying, etc. Also I would get a opinion from someone that is not going to benefit by your decision. Your dentist may be overly optimistic & if you spend all that $ & it does not work then you will have to start all over with pain, spending $ etc.

 

[Dreamer]

FWIW, I have 4 implants, all replacing molars, and love them. My dentist told me he had a patient who got a full set like they proposed for you and the patient said they changed his life (for the better). In my case, I need to commit to professional cleanings 4 times a year and I'm scrupulous with dental floss plus a Sonicare plus a Waterpik. You may want to ask what you need to do to keep the implants firmly integrated into the jawbones.

I do use a Sonicare and I am going to look into getting a Waterpik too.

 

[Dreamer]

I would recommend obtaining a second opinion. I would also suggest searching for a dentist with much more experience. This fellow has only been a dentist for three years, is a graduate student and probably does not have much of a history of doing the procedures that he has suggested.

I had extensive dental work in my 50's including extractions , braces , replacing teeth , crowns & fixed partials . It was worth it but a long hassle .Since then I have had minimal problems . I would be extremely nervous about having all my teeth pulled . I agree that a second opinion is needed no way would I plunk down that much money to a student no matter how good he is .

This is such an extensive treatment, that you might want to get a second opinion just to make sure.

It does sound like a good idea to get a second opinion, but I honestly would not know where to start. The last dentist that I was going to before I started at the dental school, put a crown on my front tooth. I was not thrilled with the way it looked. It went up much higher than my other teeth and was big. They quickly give you a mirror and say how nice it looks and you are on your way out. I should have said no, it does not look nice, but I did not do this. I decided I would go elsewhere and that is when I went to the dental school. Okay, yes I am a wimp. Actually, at the dental school, they told me not to bite on this front tooth, because it is only attached to the bone in the back and could come off at any time. The student has faculty that oversees what he is doing. I saw the dentist that is over him, when I transferred from the dental school to where the graduate students work. He did a complete exam first and then my next appt was with the student. I had the same dental student as my dentist when I was going to the regular dental school. He put a crown on the furthest tooth on my upper right in 2012. I have not had any problems with it yet. He told me that his mother, who is 65 yrs old and living in Kuwait, is having this same procedure done. The dentist who oversees his work, stopped in the room and answered some questions for me also. You think of a million questions after you leave though.

 

[Corporateburnout]

I would recommend obtaining a second opinion. I would also suggest searching for a dentist with much more experience. This fellow has only been a dentist for three years, is a graduate student and probably does not have much of a history of doing the procedures that he has suggested.

+1.

Getting this major work done by a recent graduate is not something I would do. I would consult with an experienced dental surgeon.

I am going through my first molar implant which will be complete in January but so far the process has been extremely smooth and the final bill will be around 8K.

 

[Dreamer]

After years of expensive dental work trying to save my teeth they all became loose & many started decaying from the inside out. 10 days ago I had all my teeth pulled which was not pleasant. I must eat soft foods for months. I have temporary dentures. I intend to get the permanent denture on the bottom. It won't happen for 4 months. To have teeth pulled & permanent denture is $30,000. If I want to do the top I must wait for a year. NOt sure but I think the cost for that will be $21,000. I went & got more then 1 opinion before doing this. For years my dentist was sure he could save my teeth & I wasted a lot of $, pain & time just to end up with the same result. I have heard that in the end people are happy with the results but it is just a long road to travel.

This definitely sounds like my experience. I have at least 12 crowns in my mouth now and 1 permanent bridge on the bottom. I had 1 permanent bridge on top, but 1 of the crowns had to come off and the tooth could not be saved. I also have a space on bottom where 2 crowns that were side by side went bad and the teeth could not be saved, so I have missing teeth. We have spent a small fortune over the years on my teeth, but some of that is back to the 80's and 90's and it is starting to fail.

I have not heard the term "permanent dentures". Is this the same thing as the All on 4 procedure? Why do you have to wait a year in between? Were your upper teeth already pulled too? If I understood them correctly, I could have both the upper and the lower done at the same time. I think that the cost of mine estimated at $33,000 is tremendous. I guess this is the true reason why I am going to the dental clinic, cost and having someone oversee what the other person is doing. I truly think that the dental clinic would make it right, if anything went wrong. At least I hope so.

I wish you the best with this and I hope that you keep us up to date with your experience. I don't think that I am going to start on this until after I go on a cruise that I have planned with some friends, which is the beginning of February 2016.

 

[Dreamer]

My DW is finishing up on two implants on her bottom right... with two bone grafts and all the other stuff, cost is close to $15K....

Now we are about to start on her upper right... she has to have 4 teeth pulled and will have 3 implants that will support the bridge for her teeth... have not received an estimate for total cost, but $2K for extraction and bone graft...

Doc says that in the end she will have over 20 teeth replaced... the vast majority of them have had root canals and doc said that if that happens then the tooth will likely be replaced in 20 to 30 years.... (IIRC what he said)..
I would much prefer that she get all of her teeth done properly at once instead of this constant work that we are doing... Just for the two implants she has been going for two years, with the grafts, healing, implants, crowns, after check when she was bleeding, scraping the teeth, cutting etc. etc... it looks like the end of that, but now we have two more years (maybe) on the other side of her mouth... and after that... who knows which teeth will be a problem....

I guess I should have checked her teeth before getting married.....

Wow. Sounds like she is having a lot of the same problems as I am having. Your DW and I probably would not have had any marriage proposals, if you guys would have checked out our teeth. LOL!

I think that this is my DH's reasoning also. Get it done all at once, look nice and won't have to worry about which tooth is going to fail, after all the work is done. I read on the internet, where someone had 2 teeth shatter, after biting into a cookie after this procedure though. My DH told me to quit googling, All on 4 and cons. The dentist overseeing the student did tell me that this usually last between 5-10 yrs and then the bridge could be redone if needed for between $1000-$1500. (My student dentist told me that the fixed bridge fabrication would be $12000 now. Wonder what the difference is between $12000 now and $1500.00 if it needs redone. So many questions.) He also said that individual teeth could be fixed, if there was a problem.

 

[Dreamer]

I had extensive dental work in my 50's including extractions , braces , replacing teeth , crowns & fixed partials . It was worth it but a long hassle. Since then I have had minimal problems . I would be extremely nervous about having all my teeth pulled . I agree that a second opinion is needed no way would I plunk down that much money to a student no matter how good he is .

I have had one tooth extracted at a time. I have had many root canals, crowns and a couple of permanent bridges. They are starting to fail. However, I have never once contemplated having all of my teeth pulled. I don't even like the sound of it. I have lived in WV since 1986, so I am sensitive to the hillbilly jokes. I might not have good teeth, but I have strong roots. I have ended up with bruises on my face, from them trying to get one tooth out. I can't imagine having them pull out 22 teeth at one time.

 

[sansha]

Twenty years ago, I went to the U. MD dental school and had a failed bridge replaced with 4 implants. They have never given me a minutes trouble and are still great, according to a dental surgeon.

My dentist wanted to replace a crown last April and the tooth cracked - she said they could do a root canal to try and save it, but she recommended an implant for that tooth and the tooth in front. Because Baltimore was rioting at the time, I elected to avoid the downtown dental school and went to an local oral surgeon. The procedure is very long -- you have to get the tooth pulled, wait months, get the implant in, wait months, and get the posts uncovered, wait weeks, and then wait another bunch of weeks for the final crown. The whole process takes about a year - and I don't think it took half as long back when I got the first implants which have done so great.

I hated the idea of the long drawn out waiiting - for one thing I REALLY wanted to retire then, but I couldn't continue my dental insurance privately, so I'm trying to get this procedure done before I could quit. I asked the surgeon about why it took so long when I see commercials every day for clearchoice that says they can do it all in one day. He said the success rate is not that great and they fall out. I don't know if he is right or not, but decided I didn't want to risk going through the cost and procedure only to do it half baked and have it potentially fail.

I understand the grief of taking supposedly good care of your teeth but having these problems. I use plax, brush, floss and follow up with ACT at least twice daily, and keep getting told on checkups my teeth are the cleanest they see. I have had essentially no work done for years. But then this happened. It's very frustrating to be told how great care I've been taking of my teeth and go from that to this. Basically I was told, some people have great genes for teeth and others just don't.

 

[athena53]

Sensha, have you checked your dental coverage? Most max out at $1,500 or $2K per year. Staying with your company might not get you any more coverage. My dental implants were placed in February, 2014. I left abruptly in May but had already collected the annual max by then! Not sure if the next calendar year would provide any more coverage for an ongoing procedure.

 

[Teacher Terry]

I actually took a 3 week cruise before I had my teeth pulled. They advised to have them all pulled at once because they were so loose. Well unfortunately my roots were good so it took 4 hours with novacaine & being high on some kind of pill. 10 days later I still don't feel well. For long term success you should do the long process-places like Clear Choice do not have good success rates. The permanent denture is called a hybrid & you can't take it out. It requires screws in your jaw etc just like a regular implant. In this part of the country a full mouth implant now costs $200,000. The more bone you have the better but if you don't have enough bone they can give you cadaver bone. So if your teeth hard to pull it means you have plenty of bone. I am semi-retired & work p.t. from home which is good because I only felt well enough to go out a few days. I am now 11 days into this. I also am not wearing my dentures much at home because your gums heal way faster if you don't so just wear them to out or if someone coming over. This has not been fun but I hope will be worth it. My only other option was to spend $12,000 more to keep my teeth that were loose & the specialist said I would loose them anyways so I just faced the sad truth.

 

[athena53]

The more bone you have the better but if you don't have enough bone they can give you cadaver bone.

I got grafts of donor bone for all of my implants. Very annoying that they defer you from donating blood for a year after that; I'm sure my oral surgeon used bone tissue from only the finest cadavers!

 

[Teacher Terry]

30 years ago when my sister lost all her teeth &had a full mouth of implants they had to take the bone from her hip so she had surgery. So nice we don't have to do that anymore.

 

[Dreamer]

Thank you to all who have replied to me. I wish I could wave a magic wand and have everything over with and have good teeth. I will be calling my dental student and possibly the dentist over him next week with a list of questions. If anyone else has any experience or anything that I should question, I would love to hear it.

 

[explanade]

My long time dentist proposed a dental implant and I didn't go with it.

Then a few visits later (about a year), he proposes a root canal on another tooth.

He's never been one to push procedures which seemed to be a way to generate revenues. Certainly not when I was working and on a generous insurance plan.

Now that I'm retired (and he knows it), you wouldn't think he'd be pushing it on someone who's less likely to do procedures which are not urgently needed.

The thing is, there are other dentists who actually advertise dental implants for a fraction of what my dentist is proposing. Even when I had insurance, it would have cost me out of pocket around the same as what these other dentists are advertising.

I'm thinking of going to another dentist, just for the regular exam and cleaning, to see if they would also push the same procedures. But it's kind of a hassle to go through Yelp and other review sites, cross-reference against the network which the $20 a month plan that I have.

I've had dentists who push for a lot of procedures. I've left them because I got tired of the hard sell or in one case, a gum line filling she put in came out a few months afterwards and she wanted to charge for fixing it.

There are dental HMO's such as those offered by Costco or Delta Dental. Prices seem too good to be true so I figured those dentists can't be that good. But might as well research them a bit more.

 

[athena53]

I've heard of dentists proposing expensive procedures that may not be needed. We've been with ours for 10+ years and he's got a good track record. It's one of the reasons I hope he never retires. If he says something needs to be dine, we believe him.

 

[Teacher Terry]

Dreamer: I am wondering if you have had the work done and what you chose? I had the permanent denture on the bottom put in April and it healed really good and has been great. I wear a denture on top and they are now making a new one because your gums shrink so much during the first year. It costs 38k to get the top done so won't be doing that. Places will do it cheaper but if it is done wrong you can have face pain and paralysis if they put the post in a nerve, etc. It is important for them to do a 3d scan and not just a 2 d. I have a lisp now from the top denture that I never had before. I also found out that the reason my teeth went downhill so fast was from the CPAP machine. If you don't have really good teeth 50% of people loose them after they start on the machine. No one tells you that of course. My jaw is also pulling to the left from my machine and I have TMJ now. I quit using the machine and will see about PT for my jaw. I also am looking for a class action lawsuit to join because I feel both the doc and the machine makers should let you know about the possible side effects. Hope things are going well for you.