32 Yr Old Who Survived a Terrible Accident 15 Years Ago. Phoenix, AZ

After spending close to $30,000 on my teeth over the last 15 years, you could never tell by looking in my mouth. Have 8 remaining teeth, and have been in chronic pain for close to 8 months. I got snap ons created for $3000, to wear in public, however, you cant eat with them. Im a full time single mom and because of my teeth and the pain, I havent dated in over 5 years. I finally said I need to do something about it and I called 3 places in Az to do a consultation for the All on 4.
Clear Choice was the 1 I looked the most forward to. They called on a Friday at 4:58 to confirm the following Tuesdays appt on Jan 23rd, but I missed the call and they were closed when I called back. So Monday at 8am, I called to comfirm and was told they gave my appt away. I waited 7 weeks to get in and now have to wait another 5 weeks. I was really upset and almost walked away from them all together, just off of that. Saw 3 other local Dentists who all had things I didnt like about how they did their treatments. Find out if you are put to sleep, if they do it all at once or seperate surgeries, ask if they have recovery room, ask about pain treatment BEFORE and after, how long the surgery takes, cost of acrylic and porcline, and the total time frame of full recovery.

Finally got into Clear Choice at the end of March, and had my consultantation. The price I was quoted over the phone was $14000 difference from the actual cost. If you are serious on getting the All on 4, please know they only quote you the acrylic teeth cost. You dont get told about porcelain until the consultation, which is $14000 more. Acrylic is only a temporary solution. Wish I had known this back in January, because thats a big difference in cost. Left Clear Choice upset about the cost, and now we were 2 months out from where we started. My family said to get another opinion and we went to another local place. Left there realizing I wanted Clear Choice to do the surgery.

Here's my dental history. Was in an accident in 2001, and my teeth turned black from the trauma. Was a motorcycle accident, and was wearing a helmet. Because of my other major injuries over the last 15 years I have had 67 surgeries to make me a "walking, talking, functioning person". In between all these other surgeries, I would loose or damage teeth from the anesthesiologist in those surgeries. Any damage in your teeth, getting put under can cause teeth damage, and it happened. Had my teeth reverse root canaled to have them not be black. Then over the years got root canals over and over to try and save the teeth. Long story short, I only have the 5 front teeth left and 3 on the bottom with 3 crowns. All the rest, the root canals failed and ended up pulling them out in the last 3 years. By the time I was 30, I had just about lost all my teeth. Very sad and emotional. Went to several dentists to see about getting posts, and was price shocked when they said they were $4000 per tooth. Just came to the realization I would have to get dentures. Years passed and the All on 4 came to the Valley and was something I wanted to do.

And here we are now. Since my appt in March with Clear Choice, 4 teeth remaining have cracked since they did all the measurements and molds. Im in more pain now and they scheduled my surgery 9 weeks out. So Im in the waiting period, more pain than before, counting the days down to have the surgery. Wish in Jan they never rescheduled the appt and I would be closer to the surgery or would have already had it.

Ive called Clear Choice several times to see if I can get moved up, with no success. Im terrified they are going to reschedule this surgery. I hope I get the call that they can get me in, in the next few weeks.

I can only daydream of what the end result is going to look like. Spent so many years saving my life with major surgery, that all that is left is my teeth and I just want the pain to go away. Eat normal food, smile, be happy with accomplishing this long awaited goal.

Ill follow up when the surgery comes and provide an update of how it went.

Hope this helps someone in their process and what to ask and really knowing the cost and waiting period.

It finally came and last Thursday I went in and got my All on 4s! Got a call the night before to not eat, dont take antibiotics and show up around 6:45am. By 7:15 they gave me hospital socks and put me into the surgery room. Had already taken the Dizapam 1 hour before the appt and was practically sleeping. They put laughing gas through nose tube and put heating pad on my arm to get an IV in since that has always been a challenge. I remember them telling me to open my mouth and they went to Give me a shot and I screamed in pain and the next thing I knew they woke me up and had to use the bathroom, immediately had to use it. The nurse followed me into the bathroom and said she has never seen someone wake up in surgery to have to pee. Given I had gone right before I went into the surgery room.
So I was put into the recovery room with all my teeth out and 4 posts on the upper and lower and I feel asleep. 2 hours later they brought me back into room to add in my teeth. Screwing them in hurt and was asked to bite down over and over till they got it right. They pulled out the mirror and I was happy. Asked to get my mom so she could see it.

I ate chocolate pudding before leaving from the fridge that was fully stocked. And went home. Was there a total of 8 hours and felt great. Theu did cut the sides of my lips, which always happens since my mouth is soo small. But dont feel pain from where the teeth and wisdom teeth were removed. Only feel the top gums on the roof of my mouth feel inflammed.

They said day 3 and 4 are the worst and they are right. Im swallen from my eyes down to my collar bone. Light bruising and eating pudding and soup. My lips are very chapped and layers keep coming off. Just keep icing it and taking ibuprofen to help with the swelling.

To be honest the day of surgery was a blur and my teeth feel natural. I have a follow up in 7 days and will update everyone with the status.

Here's some pictures, let me know what you think. :) Thanks to everyone for your support and kind words!

A lot has happened since I last wrote an update. I had the All on 4s Dental implant surgery in mid May, and I know everyone's mouth is different and I expected there to be small complications. Given my dental history. My overall main concern was the posts, and having them heal properly. Good news is they are healing nicely and my previous bone damage from the accident didnt affect the posts. Huge sign of relief!
I did have more pain than normal 12 days out from the surgery. I called Clear Choice 5 days after and each day until they got me in 12 days after surgery. The roof of my mouth was covered with white bumps that actually looked like teeth. Included picture of roof of my mouth. The dentist who I saw (was not who performed the surgery) said it was canker soars. I've never had a history of canker soars and left there in a lot of pain and no antibiotics or pain medicine. They did give me 4 antibiotics before surgery and 15 pain meds that were used up by day 4 after the surgery. The sides of my mouth were ripped open from surgery and took 5 weeks to heal. I ended up going to the ER because the pain was so bad and they said the bumps on the roof of my mouth was burn marks. They ended up pooping and infection set in. Was very upset that Clear Choice sent me on my way knowing it wasnt canker soars and with an infection. Ive always had trouble sickness with antibiotics and have to take nausea medicine which is prescribed. Took 4 days to get the nausea medicine and finally stopped throwing up. Throwing up with the dentures hurts and is not fun. Have pounding where posts are and gave me massive headaches. As stated in previous posts,I was in a motorcycle accident back in 2001 and have had over 60 surgeries since then. Internal bleeding mutiple times, my small intestine was removed, my large intestine has 30% left, my gallbladder was removed in 2010, but was engulfed in scar tissue that pulled my heart, lung, liver and gallbladder in a web of scar tissue. The Dr who removed it severed 2 of my heart valves and damaged my stomack wall more and lung. Those have all since been operated on and I live with a heart condition that I take medicine for. Have had 2 heart attacks and almost was a reason I couldnt get the All on 4s. It's imperative I take antibiotics so my heart isnt affected or it not spreading to my metal I have in me.
I started having pain right where your 2 front teeth are where they have been removed. Took 6 calls to Clear Choice to get me in. They removed the denture and said my Freenum muscle (in between 2 front teeth) was dropping down pressing against the denture. They sanded the denture down and said it needed to be removed. Very painful and should have been done during the surgery. Still have not seen the oral surgeon or the dentist who did the surgery. Also, I had a huge overbite before the surgery. So bad I never saw my bottom teeth. I now have bottom teeth and no longer have the overbite. Has taken getting used to, and did hurt the first 2 months. Felt like my mouth had been open for surgery and took a while to get used to it. Feels normal now and can see the bottom when I smile. Included picture showing bottem when mouth is open.
I was going to write a follow up when these things were happening, but was in a very negative place and wanted to inform people to be aware of the muscle and know when you know something is wrong to take charge and have it be looked at.
They tried to teach me how to floss, but my gums were so inflamed I need to wait. They actually cut my gums 7 times when showing me how to floss. Very painful like a papercut on your gums. Have been on antibiotics to get the swelling to go down, gaggle salt water 10 times a day and use my waterpik. Not the waterpik they provided, because that one was terrible. You would think the amount of money paid to have the surgery, they would give the best waterpik. I bought one for $100 from an infomercial I saw on the TV. It is amazing and still on the number 2 setting.
Where I am at today is next month I have a 4 hour appt to remeasure my mouth and get 3rd set of temp acrylics made. They said my teeth were not alligned right and needed to be redone. The following month I go back to get the porcelains made. They said it takes 9 months to finish the entire process of getting porcelain teeth as a pose to the temp acrylic. Mine will be 11 months due to the small issues and not healing quickly.
I was a smoker prior to having the surgery. Quit 1 month before and still have not smoked. Guess it was perfect timing to quit. Have lost 18 lbs so far, and I was already slim before the surgery. I'm 5'6 and weighed 123 the day of surgery. My pharmacy have voiced concern of my weight loss. Im still on liquid and very soft foods. Have tried eating cereal and pizza, which hurt for days after. At my last appt they said to keep eating soft foods and do not try others. In all the paperwork and conversation before surgery I thought after 1 month I could eat regular food. I was wrong and make sure you ask what you should be eating. I'm 3 months out from surgery and still eating soft foods and drinking protein shakes. I will say a lot of people do comment on my weight now. I've always been thinner, and people are not afraid to say something. I recently talked to a friend and we discussed that it is rude to say someone is overweight and if heard in public is shameful. But why is it ok to tell someone they look anorexic and go eat a hamburger. I can only speak from personal experience, but be prepared for people to say something about your weight loss after having the surgery. I hope you have a more positive experience than I have with people focusing on my weight. Seems that is discussed more than my new teeth. Ill say the same here, when I can eat normal again, the weight will come back.
In closing I want to end on a positive note. My teeth do look amazing, and once the gums have healed, I will feel amazing again. Hooray for quitting smoking! 15 year smoker and stopped cold turkey. I made a goal sheet of what I want to accomplish in the up and coming months. Eating steak with corn on the cob is on that list. :) Mastering flossing once I am able to. That will feel much cleaner and I look forward to that. I'm excited to see how I feel and look like after they remeasure and replace the temporary acrylic teeth. I look forward to seeing what the porcelain look like and will follow up with pictures and update post.
Hope this helps someone out there who may be going through this, or someone who will be getting these. Questions to ask and what to be prepared for with what could go wrong. My best friends Dad just got regular dentures and he is experiencing similar things. Different surgeries, but I now know what I would have been going through had I gotten regular dentures. I will say even though there have been complications, I still recommend the All on 4s to people, it is worth the money in the long run. Having dealt with tooth pain all those years and smiling now is a feeling I can't describe. I know there is shock over the cost, but I know it is worth it. Each time I smile it beings me true joy. This has changed my life and it will only get better. I'm beyond happy I did the All on 4s and really hope my story and others on here really help others.
Talk to you all soon!