Same Day Smiles

Hello All! This site has been an absolute God send for me over the last several months. I wanted to return some karma and share my journey on getting the All on Four done.
So I will start out by saying I am working with Dr. Park and his team at Same Day Smiles in Franklin TN. When I say working with them, I mean it has been a truly collaborative experience with everyone from the receptionist to Dr. Park himself. They have all been incredibly gracious and patient-absolutely instrumental in making what was once a "pie in the sky" dream, a reality.
Ok-a little history. I am fairly young for the "typical" all on four patient-but I have struggled with my teeth for as long as I can remember. I wish I could blame the issues I've had on some underlying medical concerns or some traumatic event, but the reality is it was all completely preventable, and spiraled in the past couple years.
I'm 35 years old, now with a great career that ironically puts me in front of large audiences doing presentations, and requires to be in close contact meetings, and lots of lunch/dinner engagements. It's an incredibly professional environment and outward appearances are incredibly important. Which makes having a horrible smile, very difficult to say the least.
As a child I rarely visited the dentist...was absolutely terrified to go as a young adult because my teeth had gotten so bad by that point every visit was a major undertaking of fillings, extractions, root canals. Add to that I either had no, or really poor dental insurance, so it was just as painful on my wallet. I would wait to go to the dentist until I was in severe mind numbing pain, or an infection-or in many cases both.
About 7 years ago I had some major restoration done on my upper front teeth, doing root canals and placing 6 shiny white crowns. While the crowns looked great I had extracted several visible teeth around them, and the bottoms where a dingy yellow color. That procedure was by far the worst I ever had! I spent all day 12+ hours in a dentist chair, freezing-and often times left alone for looooong stretches of time. Not exaggerating...hours at a time! I could hear the dentist in the next room taking care of other patients as I sat in a chair-mouth open, nerves exposed to cold air. The assistant would come in a give me shots to numb the pain, saying the doc would be right in-and it took so long that it would wear off and she would have to shoot me up again before the doc ever even came back in! Honestly, it was my worst nightmare come true. I walked out of there with a new level-now founded fear of the dentist. I was to go back to do implants for the missing upper teeth but I just couldn't bring myself to do it! So I paid nearly $25K and still couldn't smile! I ended up buying a temporary flipper so that I could at least speak and "hide" the missing teeth somewhat. So for the better part of the past decade that was my reality. No smiling with teeth, I couldn't eat during lunch/dinner meetings, as it was difficult to chew with the flipper and missing bottom teeth, and I hated being in well lit areas (outside) in the light as the discoloration bw the upper and lower teeth was more noticeable.
Fast forward to about a month and a half ago-and a decade of wearing a "home" bought partial had caused pressure on the very expensive crowns I had placed, causing a break on the left side about 6 months ago, and then the cap came off the right side.
Also, I will mention that with the extractions, my once beautiful jawline has been weakened considerably due to bone loss. I can see an difference in my neck and jaw that goes beyond the normal effects of aging.
My flipper broke also :( which is probably due to my teeth having migrated so much that each time I put it in my mouth it would be painful for a good twenty minutes, before my teeth would feel like they were pushed back to where they needed to be. I would take Tylenol often, and would take the flipper out as soon as humanly possible because it was painful.
So I was on my way to work, and I heard the ad for Same Day Smiles, and that Dr. Park does full mouth restorations. At that time, I didn't exactly know what that meant so I went to the website and found out it was for the All on Four procedure, and that Dr. Park was a leader in the field. I started doing research on the procedure, looking at reviews, and questions. I relied heavily on this site and other consumer driven sites, like Yelp and Google. Like most-it quickly became evident that the cost was considerable, so I almost immediately lost hope.
I had requested some information on the procedure when visiting the Same Day Smiles site and received an email with a complimentary appointment so I thought- What the heck...I can at least find out the docs thoughts, and if I am a candidate-or maybe there is a treatment that I haven't considered yet. So I set up the appointment.
The office itself is small with a quaint feel, and the staff was phenomenal! First I had a quick consultation with the Dental Assistants-they took my dental history, and wanted to know what my biggest concerns were, what I was trying to achieve, what my expectations were, etc . While incredibly embarrassing, I was very straightforward and open. After all-what did I have to lose?
After the consultation with the assistants, they did a full mouth scan and a quick review of my teeth. Again, embarrassing.
Then I got to meet Dr. Park. He has GREAT bedside manner. He could tell immediately that my crowns were failing, I needed several extractions, and lots of work to try and save any remaining teeth. We talked about the options available, my expectations, and what he thought might work well. He was always very careful in not pointing me in a direction, but more focused on educating and having a conversation about my current state-and where I wanted to get to. I knew my teeth were bad, I had done a TON of research ahead of time-so nothing the Doc said came as a surprise. Doesn't mean it was easy to hear though! One thing he did mention is that while I was concerned about the noticeable bone loss on my bottom arch, there was considerable loss on my upper arch that he was more concerned about.
I left the office with a treatment plan, and ideas swimming in my head about how I was going to pay for it!
Honestly, I more than contemplated going abroad to do the surgery as it was less than half the cost. I went so far as to book a hotel and plane tickets-setting an appointment in Tijuana! I couldn't shake the feeling of worry though. Not because I consider it to be a dangerous place-but I know that this major of a procedure will likely need some adjustments/follow ups that 1000 of miles will make difficult to do! Also, what if I wasn't happy? No recourse! Or worse-if something went wrong!
With the amazing help of Same Day Smiles, I was able to work out a way to fund the procedure and stay here, where I can get the attention I may need!
So I have scheduled the procedure for 10 days from today! I am incredibly nervous and so very excited to start what know will be a new chapter in my life.
I went to do my impressions on Friday...dang crown fell of like I knew it would during the impression....so embarrassing :(
Didn't even phase them-just put some temp holder and slid it back on! I spoke to Dr.Park about what the procedure entails, what to expect, and got the prescriptions for my meds.
As of right now, because of the bone loss on the upper arch, he will be placing 6 instead of 4 implants and then I will wear a temporary denture while it heals (3-6 months), the bottom arch looks good for bone so he will probably go ahead and place the permanents then as he said it is a pain to have temp dentures on the bottom.
I told him I want a HollyWood smile, cute-straight, blinding white teeth.Perfect teeth (I attached a pic of what I want). He also took before pics that I will add when I get copies.
As a side note, I have agreed to be videoed for a testimonial before and after of the procedure for him....figure it's a great way to make sure he does his best work :) I have no doubt that Dr. Park treats all his patients with the same level of care and respect he treated me. In fact, I know he does-you can hear easily in those open rooms :)
I can honestly say, I am a lot more at ease going into this procedure (at least at this moment) then I ever thought I could be. I know it is because of the amount of research I've done, and the amazing team that I'll be working with.
10 days and counting!