Teeth-in-a-Day

What happens on the day

The appointment is long, usually most of a day, and it does several things in one sitting. Any teeth that cannot be saved are removed. Four to six implants are placed into the jaw per arch, angled to find the strongest available bone. A fixed provisional bridge is then screwed onto those implants before you leave.

The provisional is a full set of teeth, fixed in place. It does not come out at night, it is not held in with adhesive, and nobody can tell it is new. You can speak normally with it the same evening.

Conscious sedation is available for the whole appointment and most patients choose it. Dr. Raju is trained in conscious sedation through DOCS, so this is done here rather than referred elsewhere.

What the name does not tell you

Teeth-in-a-Day is widely advertised as though the entire treatment finishes in a day. It does not, and anyone who implies otherwise is setting you up to be disappointed.

What finishes in a day is the surgery and the teeth you walk out with. Underneath them, the implants still need three to six months to fuse with the bone, and during that time you are eating carefully rather than normally. Only once integration is confirmed is the final bridge made, in a stronger material, fitted to gums that have finished healing and settled into their permanent shape.

So the honest version is: fixed teeth in one day, finished treatment in about six months. That is still a dramatically better experience than months without teeth, which is what the alternative used to be. It is just not the whole sentence.

A realistic timeline

• Consultation: examination, 3D cone beam scan and a written plan with a written figure. Nothing is booked before you have both.
• Surgery day: extractions, implant placement and the fixed provisional bridge. Most of a day, sedation available.
• First week: swelling and soreness, soft food only, and a review appointment to check everything is settling.
• Weeks two to twelve: back to ordinary life, but still a soft to medium diet. No hard crusts, nothing you would bite into with real force.
• Three to six months: integration is checked. Once confirmed, impressions are taken for the final bridge.
• Final fit: the permanent bridge replaces the provisional. From here you eat normally.
• Afterwards: a check once or twice a year, and a professional clean around the bridge. This is for life, not a year.

Who it suits, and who it does not

This is treatment for someone who is missing most or all of the teeth in an arch, or whose remaining teeth cannot be saved. It is also for people who have a full denture and have given up on it, particularly a lower one.

It is not the right answer for everyone who asks about it. If you still have a reasonable number of healthy teeth, taking them out to fit a full arch would be the wrong trade, and we will say so even though it means a smaller treatment plan. Natural tooth roots preserve bone better than anything we can place. Where several of your own teeth are sound, keeping them and adding individual implants or a partial is usually the better dentistry.

Severe bone loss can rule it out, although this is the technique that most often works where conventional implants cannot, because angling the posts finds bone that straight placement would miss. Heavy smoking raises the failure risk substantially. Uncontrolled diabetes and untreated gum disease both have to be addressed first.

And some people simply do not want a day of surgery. A conventional implant-retained denture that snaps onto two to four implants costs less, is less of an undertaking, and solves the main complaint about dentures, which is movement. It comes out at night. For many people that is an entirely acceptable trade and we would rather you heard both options.

Fixed or removable: the choice people find hardest

Once implants are involved there are two directions to go, and the difference is not quality. It is cost, cleaning and how it feels.

• A fixed bridge stays in permanently. It feels closest to your own teeth, and it is cleaned around rather than taken out, which takes a little learning.
• A snap-in overdenture clips onto the implants and lifts out for cleaning. It is less expensive, easier to clean thoroughly, and it does not move when you eat.
• Both stop the bone loss that an ordinary denture does nothing about, because both load the jaw through the implants.

How the cost is structured

A full arch is one of the larger pieces of dentistry anyone has done, and advertised prices are frequently for a single arch, or exclude the final bridge, or exclude the extractions. A quote is only meaningful once you know what is in it.

• The consultation and the 3D cone beam scan.
• Extraction of any remaining teeth in the arch.
• The implants themselves, four to six per arch.
• The fixed provisional bridge you leave with on the day.
• The final bridge, made months later in a stronger material.
• Sedation, and any grafting needed at the time of placement.
• Whether the figure covers one arch or both.

Insurance and payment

Most dental plans carry an annual maximum far below the cost of a full arch, so insurance typically covers a portion rather than the bulk of it. What it does often cover is the extractions, and sometimes a contribution toward the prosthetic. Because treatment runs across several months by design, a plan can frequently be arranged so that it draws on two calendar years and therefore two annual maximums.

We accept most PPO plans along with Medicaid and Medicare, and we file your claims for you. CareCredit and in-house payment plans cover the remainder, and we will show you the monthly figure rather than only the total, because that is usually the number that decides it.