He came to me desperate, asking for help. His empty, grey eyes mirrored the despair in his soul\u2026<\/p>\n
He was a musician and one decision changed his life... for the worse. Much worse...<\/p>\n
\u2026<\/p>\n
The teeth he still had left in his jaw were not pretty and they hurt him. The denture he wore to disguise the missing teeth chafed, inflamed the roof of his mouth, and food got so stuck in it that he sometimes had to stop eating to go to the toilet\u2026<\/p>\n
I was fed up with using \u201cplaque\u201d...<\/p>\n
He thought (and rightly so) that he had to do something, he couldn't live like that anymore\u2026<\/p>\n
You decided (and rightly so) that getting implants was the best solution to change your life.<\/p>\n
But it failed in what it did next\u2026<\/p>\n
I saw an advertisement for a chain of dental clinics, the kind you find in almost every town, saying something like a new smile on the same day, at the best price.<\/p>\n
He had some savings, but he wasn't a wealthy person. After all, he's a singer, but he isn't Tony Carreira\u2026<\/p>\n
If they told you it was cheap and they'd solve your problem the same day... And on top of that, the first consultation was free! Why not give it a try?...<\/p>\n
He went to the clinic and had an X-ray. Then a very friendly young woman sat with him in a room and presented him with the quote. It was a bit more expensive than the advert said... but the young woman explained to him that his case was difficult... They were going to do an \u201cAll-on-4\u201d surgery. Really, with a foreign name and all, it must be a complicated procedure...<\/p>\n
But he shouldn't worry, as the surgeon who was going to operate on him was very experienced. He would meet him on the day of the surgery and he was sure he would like him.<\/p>\n
He trusted.<\/p>\n
Regarding payment, you could pay everything now or pay in monthly instalments via credit. It\u2019s a good thing I saved all these years, he thought, and paid upfront.<\/p>\n
When I left the clinic, I looked like a footballer who'd just assisted a goal... chin up, shoulders back, a swagger in my step, and full of confidence. I'd made my mind up and paid on the spot!<\/p>\n
In the following days, doubts began to creep in\u2026<\/p>\n
Will they really solve my problem? I didn't even ask about other cases, photos, or testimonials from people who had gone through the same thing\u2026<\/p>\n
What if the doctor isn't that experienced?\u2026 What if they're rough?\u2026 What if they're some young kid?\u2026<\/p>\n
Does that price I\u2019ve already paid include everything? Or will there be any surprises?<\/p>\n
Perhaps they'll ask me for more money to make the permanent teeth...<\/p>\n
And if I have any problems, who is going to help me?...<\/p>\n
When he returned to the Clinic, he tried to ask these questions. The girl who had accompanied him before was not there, but a colleague, in a bit of a hurry, told him to be reassured, that many experienced people worked there.<\/p>\n
He wasn't very rested, but he'd already paid and wasn't going to back out.<\/p>\n
That was the worst day of his\/her life\u2026<\/p>\n
Why weren't they told it would end up like this with a swollen face? And with these black eyes?... Thinking, shut away at home, tormented by the pain they had assured him he wouldn't have...<\/p>\n
The temporary teeth were even worse than the original ones\u2026<\/p>\n
It felt as if he had little stones filling his mouth and leaving no room for his tongue\u2026<\/p>\n
Ever since she had the surgery to get the implants, she's never been able to do what she was passionate about\u2026 Now she spoke poorly, with difficulty\u2026 singing was unthinkable\u2026<\/p>\n
It was as if her personal power and zest for life had been stolen from her.<\/p>\n
She complained that those teeth were no good at all... they told her that's just how they were and she'd have to get used to it...<\/p>\n
After a few months, he started experiencing \u201cnumbness\u201d in his face and his gums continued to hurt... the problem was his because his healing was poor...<\/p>\n
When the temporary teeth broke, it took them 3 days to make an appointment and another 3 to fix the denture... meanwhile he was left toothless...<\/p>\n
He complained so much that they made him other teeth. Between one and the other... there wasn't much difference...<\/p>\n
Lost trust\u2026 But why did I get involved with these people?... Why did I rush?... I should have thought it through better, looked for other alternatives\u2026<\/p>\n
But if it was already too late to lament the surgery, she thought that at least with regard to her teeth she could do something. She didn't want to, she couldn't stay like this\u2026<\/p>\n
You know when you're looking for something and it seems like only that thing appears in front of you afterwards? It seems like the universe is showing us the way... Or then again, it's just the Facebook algorithm doing its job...<\/p>\n
Amidst so much advertising, an advert for another chain of clinics caught his eye. They also have payment facilities, if needed. This time he was going to smile at life again!<\/p>\n
New free consultation, new prescription, new very friendly girl to present the quote for new teeth\u2026 At least this time it was seen by a doctor\u2026 she was new, not the one who was going to do the treatment, but apparently, she was a dentist.<\/p>\n
He realised he would have to spend a lot more money\u2026 Everything was going to cost almost double what he'd initially thought\u2026 and on top of that, he'd already spent a large part of his savings\u2026 but he had no choice\u2026 his life and his work were at stake\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cThe rings are gone, but the fingers remain, he thought...<\/p>\n
After a series of consultations, tests, and a prosthesis that went back and forth from the lab, they finally fitted her with new teeth\u2026 The dentist couldn't screw the prosthesis in properly, but apparently, the teeth were fixed\u2026<\/p>\n
He didn't feel comfortable\u2026 it was all too thick and there wasn't enough room for his tongue\u2026 He returned to this clinic several times for them to make adjustments, remove the prosthesis, grind it down and put it back in\u2026<\/p>\n
I barely ate anything, because when I chewed it felt like I could feel the denture moving slightly\u2026<\/p>\n
I often heard clicks... click... click...<\/p>\n
The feeling of numbness did not pass and developed into a facial tic with the lip, which gave him a feeling of relief\u2026<\/p>\n
Music was her bread and butter and she still couldn't work...<\/p>\n
He arrived frustrated\u2026 Suspicious\u2026 No one can blame him\u2026<\/p>\n
\u201cOnce bitten, twice shy\u201d my mum always used to say...<\/p>\n
This time the consultation wasn't free. The first consultation with a doctor, regardless of specialty, is always one of the most important.<\/p>\n
He felt outraged. He just wished he could go back in time\u2026 he\u2019d trusted what they promised him\u2026 it was cheaper too\u2026 he hadn\u2019t known it would be like this\u2026 he said.<\/p>\n
If regret killed, he wouldn't be here to tell us this story...<\/p>\n
This time the consultation was with a truly experienced Doctor. One who isn't perfect, who also makes mistakes, but who has learned a lot from their errors and even more from those of others, and therefore knows what works for each specific case and what doesn't\u2026 What should be done to keep patients satisfied\u2026 and minimise future problems.<\/p>\n
Unfortunately, there wasn't any good news...<\/p>\n
Everything was wrong...<\/p>\n
Implants without gum, outside the bone, and with infection...<\/p>\n
A poorly made prosthesis that didn't fit the implants, making it impossible to screw in...<\/p>\n
The case had a solution... but it wasn't with those teeth, nor with those implants...<\/p>\n
Just getting rid of everything and starting all over again\u2026<\/p>\n
And the main problem wasn't even that redoing the entire treatment would be considerably more expensive than doing it right the first time... and than all the money he had already spent up to that moment... money he no longer had...<\/p>\n
The problem was that there was virtually no bone left to place new implants...<\/p>\n
What was \u201ccheap\u201d had just become extremely expensive...<\/p>\n
Currently, a large part of my work involves documenting cases of implant failures.<\/p>\n
And if in some cases the resolution is relatively peaceful, in many others we are faced with large bone losses that significantly complicate these treatments...<\/p>\n
Resolving these complications and restoring health, chewing ability and self-esteem to people, who have generally suffered so much, requires more than knowledge, experience and excellent technical skills\u2026<\/p>\n
Requires a whole empathetic team, who care about people and look after them as if they were family!<\/p>\n
One hug<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Chegou-me desesperado, a pedir ajuda. O seu olhar vazio e cinzento espelhava o des\u00e2nimo que lhe ia na alma\u2026 Era m\u00fasico e numa decis\u00e3o a sua vida mudou\u2026 para pior. Muito pior\u2026 \u2026 Os dentes que ainda lhe restavam no maxilar n\u00e3o eram bonitos e do\u00edam-lhe. A pr\u00f3tese que usava para disfar\u00e7ar os dentes que […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[94],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2680","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-implantologia-oral"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drpedrocoelho.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drpedrocoelho.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drpedrocoelho.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drpedrocoelho.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drpedrocoelho.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2680"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/drpedrocoelho.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2680\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drpedrocoelho.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drpedrocoelho.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2680"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drpedrocoelho.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2680"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drpedrocoelho.com\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2680"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}