A Reason to Smile

By: Ruth Donnelly
Created on 03rd February 2011

When Terry started to lose his teeth he thought dentures were his only option...

At the age of about 55, I started to lose my teeth. I’m not a vain man, and at first it didn’t bother me, but after a while it started to affect my ability to eat and to talk properly, which really started to get me down.

My mother wore false teeth and my mother-in-law does as well, so I’ve got some understanding of the situation and I wasn’t ashamed to wear them. However, while I had the bottom palette fitted OK, whenever the dentist tried to fit the top one it triggered my gag reflex and I was sick, which I found very distressing.

Hope springs eternal

After several failed attempts to fit the palette in the clinic, eventually I had to take it home with me.

I remember distinctly, just as I was leaving the dentist’s room, I said “well, there isn’t any alternative, is there?” and the dentist looked at me and replied: “You could always have implants”.

I’d never heard of such a thing, so I asked him a few more questions and when I left the clinic, having been so depressed just minutes before, I suddenly had a spring in my step, knowing there was something that could be done about it.

As soon as I got home, I started doing some research. I have friends in New York and family in Pennsylvania, and I knew from looking on the internet that implant dentistry is a lot more prevalent over there.

So I picked out three or four dentists in New York and a few in Pennsylvania, so that I would be able to stay with family while I was having treatment done. But when I got their prices through, they were all charging about $58,000!

I decided perhaps America was a bit out of my price range, so I started to look a bit closer to home. I found a guy in Slovakia who could do it, but he was going to charge £12,000, and I even considered a Colombian dentist, but that would cost £10,000, and once you factor in flights and accommodation, it soon adds up.

By that stage, I was pretty much ready to give up and give the dentures another try, but then a friend of mine told me about this place he’d been to in Liverpool, EvoDental.

He said he’d shown his own dentist the literature, and the dentist had said that one of the directors there, Professor Paul Coulthard, is considered to be pretty much top of his field, so if he was involved it had to be good.

That was enough to convince me, so I booked my consultation straightaway.

A man on a mission

I turned up at EvoDental’s clinic in Liverpool and the first impressions were great. I got a belting cup of coffee and the sofas in the waiting room were actually ones that I used to make when I worked as a sofa manufacturer!

The first person I met was a young guy called Daniel, who sat me down and talked over my problem, to assess whether they could help me.

That was my biggest fear – that they wouldn’t be able to do it, because my dentist kept telling me I had no bone left.So the relief when Daniel turned round and said, “yes, no problem, that can be done”, was just overwhelming.

And then I met the man himself, Dr Vijay. Talk about someone who makes an impression – his passion and drive are incredible.

He explained all about his philosophy, that he wants to show people dentures aren’t the only option; he even wants to get implants offered on the NHS. I couldn’t believe how lucky I’d been to have come across this guy at just the right time in my life.

Once we’d established that I was happy with everything, the process began. First I came in for the pre-operative treatment, to take moulds of my mouth and design my new teeth.

Dr Vijay asked me to take in a picture of myself when I was 21, so he could see what my teeth were supposed to look like. I took in my wedding photos – I didn’t realise at the time how good I looked!

Then came the big day itself. I wouldn’t call myself a brave person – if anything, I’m a coward, and I’ve always hated going to the dentist – but I wanted this so badly that I wasn’t afraid.

I was given what Dr Vijay referred to as ‘la-la pills’ at the beginning of the day, and after that it all went very smoothly. I

remember after all the prep work had been done, when I was walking back upstairs to have the actual implants fitted, Dr Vijay said to me, “how are you Terry?” I told him I had a terrible headache and he said, “well what do you expect, I’ve just been drilling holes in your head!”

That matter-of-fact attitude really appealed to me, and the whole thing was performed with tremendous expertise and passion so you know you’re in good hands.

And then at the end of the day, when my new teeth had been fitted, I got to meet the whole team, including the guy who’d made the bridge, and that made it all feel so much more personal.

A new lease of life

I had my treatment exactly six months ago now, and I can honestly say with no exaggeration that it has changed my life immeasurably.

I try not to be a man with a short memory, and I remember how it made me feel when it had got to the stage where I could only eat boiled eggs and pasta, because I had so few teeth left.

Now, I can eat absolutely anything I want, and I can talk to people knowing that they can understand every word I say.

In all the literature about implant dentistry, the emphasis is put on having the confidence to smile in photos, and that wasn’t really my main objective, but it is a wonderful bonus.