P
pjc19
Junior member
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2024
- Messages
- 1
- Location
- London, UK
Ok so not necessarily a success story per se, but let’s start from the beginning:
My dental anxiety/trauma spouts from an appointment when I was a kid, I was having some work done (a filling I think) at around 8 years old, maybe younger. Now my family have always had weak teeth anyway, and obviously nobody likes to go to the dentist so I start crying.
The dentist slapped me around the face and told me to shut up (no I didn’t track him down, too much time and effort and too many years passed now, I’m 43 at this point so he may well be dead). From that point on I couldn’t face going to the dentist and just didn’t look after my teeth. Cut to years later and I move to Berlin, I have a partial denture at this point but the rest of my natural teeth are in bad shape.
I eventually pluck up the courage to go and see a dentist which in Germany is expensive, but this dentist offers general anaesthesia so I’m like omg yes put me to sleep! Had 4 implants in the bottom jaw with a temporary prosthesis in place while osseointegration happens. I also had my top teeth out and a bone graft in the upper jaw but that needed to heal before the implants could be placed.
Then covid…… I’m in Germany, haven’t seen my family or friends for two years and I have to move home, it really affected me mentally as it did with a lot of people. So I get home and the good old nhs won’t cover anything to do with implants because it’s classed as cosmetic (not sure how it’s cosmetic if it was my only choice to have functioning teeth).
I lasted as long as I could with my temp dentures, the bottom one actually broke and I had to get an nhs dentist to bond some composite on the end to keep the screw and abutment in place! So the time had obviously come to take action but the quote I’d had was in the region of £25k-£30k.
I looked into various countries, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, but I just didn’t want to cut any corners and all required up front payment. Finally I found a specialist implant clinic, UK based.
They have been fantastic! They offer finance, even to varying levels of income and financial status. My quote was £10k for six implants in the upper jaw and permanent bridges on both jaws. They also offer sedation, which I’d recommend because the cost can be added to your finance plan and believe me, I tried going to power through it and I was a mess, I completely crumbled. Guess the point of this is: there’s always a solution….
Anyway 3 days ago I had my last two upper rear teeth removed and six implants placed in my upper jaw along with a sinus lift and yes it’s uncomfortable, yes the liquid diet sucks. But knowing that in a few months this will all be over? That’s worth its weight in gold.
My dental anxiety/trauma spouts from an appointment when I was a kid, I was having some work done (a filling I think) at around 8 years old, maybe younger. Now my family have always had weak teeth anyway, and obviously nobody likes to go to the dentist so I start crying.
The dentist slapped me around the face and told me to shut up (no I didn’t track him down, too much time and effort and too many years passed now, I’m 43 at this point so he may well be dead). From that point on I couldn’t face going to the dentist and just didn’t look after my teeth. Cut to years later and I move to Berlin, I have a partial denture at this point but the rest of my natural teeth are in bad shape.
I eventually pluck up the courage to go and see a dentist which in Germany is expensive, but this dentist offers general anaesthesia so I’m like omg yes put me to sleep! Had 4 implants in the bottom jaw with a temporary prosthesis in place while osseointegration happens. I also had my top teeth out and a bone graft in the upper jaw but that needed to heal before the implants could be placed.
Then covid…… I’m in Germany, haven’t seen my family or friends for two years and I have to move home, it really affected me mentally as it did with a lot of people. So I get home and the good old nhs won’t cover anything to do with implants because it’s classed as cosmetic (not sure how it’s cosmetic if it was my only choice to have functioning teeth).
I lasted as long as I could with my temp dentures, the bottom one actually broke and I had to get an nhs dentist to bond some composite on the end to keep the screw and abutment in place! So the time had obviously come to take action but the quote I’d had was in the region of £25k-£30k.
I looked into various countries, Turkey, Bulgaria, Hungary, Croatia, but I just didn’t want to cut any corners and all required up front payment. Finally I found a specialist implant clinic, UK based.
They have been fantastic! They offer finance, even to varying levels of income and financial status. My quote was £10k for six implants in the upper jaw and permanent bridges on both jaws. They also offer sedation, which I’d recommend because the cost can be added to your finance plan and believe me, I tried going to power through it and I was a mess, I completely crumbled. Guess the point of this is: there’s always a solution….
Anyway 3 days ago I had my last two upper rear teeth removed and six implants placed in my upper jaw along with a sinus lift and yes it’s uncomfortable, yes the liquid diet sucks. But knowing that in a few months this will all be over? That’s worth its weight in gold.
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