A train from Warrington for a life changing smile…

There are so many stories of patients travelling from all over the country, even from Canada, to pursue the life changing dental rehabilitative treatments the we provide. This week we completed the treatment for a patient who travelled from Warrington.

The first time the patient attended our clinic, he had the most severe gag reflex. Hyperactive gag reflexes affect many patients. This causes the stimulus of the gag reflex when any dental instruments are inserted into the mouth. Our patient had become very anxious over the years because he was unable to pursue any dental treatment due to his gag reflex. Over many years this had led to the severe deterioration of his teeth. He attended our clinic out of shear desparation. He wanted to be helped, but he felt his gag reflex would again prevent this. When he first attended, he started gagging even before I had him sit down in the dental chair. Just the thought of dental treatment was making him gag. 

We spent a lot of time getting to know each other during our first appointment and we devised a plan to replace his missing and failing teeth with dental implants. Most importantly, we strategically planned to do all of this treatment in a way that would be comfortable for the patient and without any gagging. How was this possible? 

How was it possible to prevent the gag reflex?

We used our intra oral scanners for all impressions. This meant he never had a bulk of impression paste in his mouth. Impression paste is the number 1 cause of stimulating the gag reflex – even in patients without this problem it can make one gag!

We provided dental sedation for the major treatment session. Sedation causes the gag reflex to become dorment. This means we can provide treatment without inducing this unwanted reflex. It is also a lot more comfortable for the patient. We managed to remove all of the teeth, place the dental implants and provided fixed teeth all on the same day, during the same session. This meant the patient never had to weart a denture. Removable dentures are intolerable for patients with a hypersensitive gag reflex. By providing fixed teeth from the very beginning, our patient never had to worry about wearing removable dentures at any point during his treatment.

Following this procedure, our patient was already more confident about his smile and also, less anxious about coming to the dentist. 6 months later we replaced his fixed teeth with the definitive fixed implant supported bridge. This provided the patient with the truly life changing smile he had always wanted. All this treatment was planned strategically to ensure the patient had as little stress as possible whilst still achieving the treatment he had always wanted and needed.

There were tears of joy from the patient at the end, it was overwhelming and I am very proud that our team were able to help a man who had almost given up on his teeth until he came to our clinic!

Thank you for reading,

Mohsin Patel