Treating a case that our patient thought was ‘hopeless’

We have recently completed the treatment for a patient that presented to our clinic with heavily worn teeth, missing teeth and loss of vertical space. The situation was a result of years of gradual dental problems which eventually resulted in the situation below:

The patient was a respectful lady in her 50’s and appeared resorted to having these teeth for the rest of her life. Dentist’s had told her previously that this could not be treated.

It is true that treatment to reverse loss of vertical space is challenging however, it is possible with careful planning. The problem is that such treatment is not possible using simple generalised NHS dental treatments, in fact, treatment to resolve these issues involves advanced dental care performed by a multi-disciplined team of skilled practitioners. 

Hard to believe

The patient found it difficult to come to terms with the idea that treatment for her problem was possible. It was an important hurdle to overcome for the patient, her expectations had been knocked down by previous dental assessments and now she was being given much higher expectations.

Careful planning and precision dental treatment

To treat a case like this we must create a new biting position for the patient to increase the vertical space. Following this, all of her teeth must be carefully re-contoured to ensure that the teeth fit together in the new biting position with an increased vertical space. The missing teeth were replaced using dental implants and teeth whitening/ polishing was utilised to improve the aesthetic appearance of all of her teeth.

The key here is to not just create a ‘cosmetic’ smile, but also a functional smile. It is only possible to create a functional working smile by carefully planning the new biting position. Cosmetic teeth can be made very easily, however, functional teeth are more bespoke and require more tailor made planning.

The patient was delighted with her new smile. Not only did her appearance improve, her ability to chew food properly had significantly improved.

This treatment was provided to a patient who had never expected such an improvement was possible in her mouth. Our team specialise in spending time on cases like this to find a way to successfully treat our patients, we take great pride and pleasure in performing these treatments.

Thank you for reading, if you have any comments or queries please contact us using the form below or via [email protected]

Mohsin Patel BDS MJDF RCS (Eng)