In this heartfelt episode of the Smile Reconstruction Podcast, Dr. Josh Muir and Dr. Tanner Townsend explore the emotional and physical journey of patients who regain their ability to enjoy food and life after receiving dental implants. From the fear of eating in public to the triumph of biting into a juicy steak again, they walk through the various treatment options—including All-on-4, snap-in dentures, and traditional dentures—highlighting their impact on quality of life. With relatable patient stories, including a memorable character named Larry, and expert insights into oral anatomy and treatment paths, this episode is a powerful reminder that it’s not just about teeth—it’s about reclaiming connection, confidence, and joy.

Dr. Josh Muir 0:00 Welcome back to the Smile Reconstruction Podcast. Now this is a podcast where we talk about everything related to dental implants. My name is Dr Josh Muir, and I am here with Dr Tanner Townsend, and we’ve got an exciting episode for you today about the joy of food. Now, for myself, I am a foodie. I like to try things. If I’m at a buffet, I’ll take a little bit of everything, because I truly enjoy all of the flavors, all of the textures, sometimes even the sounds as I crunch through things. But you know, a lot of times what leads to needing a smile makeover, or what leads to needing tooth replacement, chewing and eating becomes more of a fear rather than a pleasure. And so today, we’re going to dive into that a little bit and just discuss that transition that takes place. So Dr Townsend, why don’t you tell us a little bit about patients that come in for a consult. What are they experiencing, and what has been their history as they’ve transformed from someone that at one point had good teeth to someone that has bad teeth, what are they experiencing?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 1:16 Great, great question. So I think a lot of times what we see when patients come in for that initial consultation is they are unable to enjoy the foods they used to, and they used to have these wonderful teeth that they could eat whatever they wanted with, and then they slowly break down, chip or get worn down to the point where they can’t enjoy their food, and they can’t eat what they want, and they’re kind of scared, because it’s not the same The way it used to be for him, I don’t know, is that the same thing that you’ve seen, what have you seen?

Dr. Josh Muir 1:45 Absolutely and, you know, the other part to that, that I’ll add is a lot of the enjoyment of food is, food is something that brings us all together. And we gather for holidays, we we go on dates, we go on, you know, outings, picnics and and even business meetings. And so if you can’t eat with everyone else, it really does become something that is a fear. You know, I have a friend named Larry, and Larry has dentures. Larry is someone that needs help shopping and things. So there’s a group of us that would take him shopping every week, and every time we’d go, we would go to Subway, and he would take his dentures out, if he was even wearing them, and he would just gnaw through the sandwich. And for Larry, that worked, because Larry really didn’t have any other options, and Larry didn’t really care what people thought of him, but I guarantee if you’re out on a date, or if you’re with some friends or out in public, some in another circumstance, you’re going to care an awful lot about that. And so what ends up happening with a lot of patients is they don’t eat with friends, they they become more reclusive and and pull back from their social groups, or they just simply don’t have a social group, and so you have that fear of eating. It affects a lot. So when you start talking to patients during these consult appointments, about, hey, let me tell you some possibilities. Walk us through you know, typically we talk about all right, there’s the All-On-4 style treatment, or the fixed treatment, where the teeth stay in all the time. There’s the snap indenture treatment. And there is still a place for a traditional, regular denture without implants. It’s not as nice, but there is still a place for it. And so tell us about that. Or the last part would be, it’s not just about replacing all of someone’s teeth. Sometimes it’s just a tooth. But what teeth do we normally replace, and why? What are some of those things?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 3:51 Yeah,

Dr. Josh Muir 3:51 A lot to ask.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 3:52 Yeah. So if we’re breaking it down, if we’re saying what teeth of the teeth that we normally replace, if I’m saying the two most important teeth in the mouth that I’m replacing. It’s my first molars, which is usually my second to last tooth, if I have my wisdom teeth taken out, it’s where you do 90% of your chewing, and a front tooth, and that one’s more for looks and esthetics, yeah. And so those are the teeth that I’m absolutely going to replace.

Dr. Josh Muir 4:18 Now let me cut you off there.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 4:19 Yeah,

Dr. Josh Muir 4:20 Because you mentioned 90 80% chewing happens on that one molar. That’s the tooth we get when we’re six years old. It’s our first permanent posterior tooth. Yeah, so very important, but it’s often missing later in life because we’ve had it so long we don’t take care of it as well when we’re six years old and so but that’s where most of our chewing is done, and so what I see with that is, when someone’s missing that tooth, they chew everything on the right side, and what happens?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 4:53 You overload the other side,

Dr. Josh Muir 4:54 Overload the right side, and have a problem over here. So yeah, thanks for sharing that with us.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 5:00 Yeah, so I don’t know those would be the teeth I would replace, but at the same time, like everyone has a different you know, if you’re missing a tooth, that’s a premolar on the top, and you can see it when you smile, yeah, that’s an becomes an important tooth to some, to a lot of people. And so if that’s something that’s bugging them, they’re going to want that replaced.

Dr. Josh Muir 5:19 So tell us about the full arch treatments, the All-On-4, the Snap-In and the traditional denture. And you know, as we’re talking about the joy of food versus the fear of food, or fear of being in that situation to eat in front of people, tell us about that in each of those treatments.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 5:39 Yeah,

Dr. Josh Muir 5:40 Maybe starting with the All-On-4 style,

Dr. Tanner Townsend 5:41 Yeah, so the All-On-4 style, that is such a blessing that we have that as a treatment option for patients. Because if we didn’t have that as a treatment option for patients, like that is the closest thing to natural teeth that you can get. If you have to have your teeth taken out, you can eat almost anything you want. It’s like being reborn again in a sense of what you can eat and what in teeth. Born Again teeth, we should start calling them BORN AGAIN teeth. We should, we should trademark that.

Dr. Josh Muir 6:04 Okay, there we go

Dr. Tanner Townsend 6:08 Born again teeth. But being able to chew whatever you want when you get those fun teeth, that’s incredible. I don’t know. Have you experienced that with patients when they get their final All-On-4 teeth?

Dr. Josh Muir 6:25 Yeah,

Dr. Tanner Townsend 6:25 What’s that been like?

Dr. Josh Muir 6:27 I mean, you go from now, we’ve got to back up a little bit again, there’s a history with every patient. But patients go from having teeth to having them break down to where they can’t chew, can’t enjoy, they start fearing food. And then we put them in overnight. We put them in a new set of teeth, but remembering those are, those are for healing. And during the healing period, you can’t chew on them. I mean, it’s really mushy. Food is what you’re eating. So you’ve got teeth. You learn to smile again, yep, you open up your social circles again. You start being around more people, and you anxiously await the time that your healing is finished and you get your final teeth. And when that happens, typically what we hear is, Okay, I’m getting a steak tonight. Yeah, and over and over, that’s what we hear. I can finally go get a steak. What time are we going to be finished? And it’s just a joyous thing. And when we’re fortunate enough to see patients down the road a few months later for their maintenance appointments or we run into them somewhere, it’s fantastic just to hear Hey guys, thank you. They don’t say rarely do they say, Oh, I’m so glad I can eat again. What they say is, thank you for helping me get my life back. Yeah, so how important is this joy of food and joy of smiling and all of that? It’s it’s a life changing thing. So compare the all on four experience to well, what if someone isn’t ready for the all on four? Maybe they’re not a candidate for some reason, or they just they’ve had a denture for a long time. They wanted something more stable, but they don’t like the idea of not being able to take it out. So they’re in a snap indenture. How does that compare with the things they can eat and the experience they have?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 8:15 Yeah, so a Snap-In denture, you’re going to be able to enjoy a lot of foods still, and it’s going to be wonderful. It’s kind of going to be delayed. You’re going to learn to smile again, normal denture that doesn’t snap in during that healing phase. And you’re only going to be able to chew a few things. It’s not going to be it’s going to be pretty soft food diet during that healing period. During that healing period, yes, and so, but once you get those dentures to snap in, man, it’s, it’s great.

Dr. Josh Muir 8:46 It’s immediate.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 8:47 Yeah, it’s immediate. And you are able to enjoy those foods you couldn’t before. Now you’re not going to be able to probably eat the corn on the cob or steak maybe, like you would in a fixed case.

Dr. Josh Muir 8:59 So and that’s where I’ll say, I don’t know. I’ve got,

Dr. Tanner Townsend 9:02 you got some that can

Dr. Josh Muir 9:03 I would say most of my patients that go through that treatment are able to really and it, and it becomes, you know, everyone’s a little bit different. But do you hold the corn on the cob right in the front? Do you angle it to the side a little bit? There might be a little bit of a technique, but I would say most of them that have tried it have been able to when it snaps in well.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 9:26 Nice. Well, that’s so

Dr. Josh Muir 9:27 Everyone’s different.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 9:28 Everyone’s different.

Dr. Josh Muir 9:30 You’ll run into those patients that they just struggle to relearn how to eat, but and then the steak is really well, cut it into a smaller piece, and then just enjoy the heck out of it, you know, and enjoy it. So,

Dr. Tanner Townsend 9:46 Yeah. So I think that it’s incredible, the jumps that you’re able to see still with a Snap-In Denture, as opposed to no teeth, or from what they came from, it’s going to be a huge and huge improvement. And then there’s the denture,

Dr. Josh Muir 10:01 Traditional denture, no implants.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 10:04 Like, what are your takes on traditional denture? Not on the spectrum.

Dr. Josh Muir 10:08 That’s where there’s there’s two parts, the top denture. If someone has a top denture and they have either implants on the bottom or natural teeth on the bottom, they can actually do pretty well.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 10:19 Yeah,

Dr. Josh Muir 10:19 The top denture, we can use adhesive and secure it to the top, to the roof of the mouth. And I would say most patients do pretty well with that. Now, can they all eat corn on the cob? No, for sure, not. But there are some that can. I would say those that can are the ones that make it a priority to learn how and they know it’s not going to be just the same, but they really try to do the best they can with it. Now we’ll go to the lower denture. And as you know, the lower denture, it’s just there’s just not as much holding it in place. You don’t have the roof of the mouth to balance on. It’s just this little arch, this little horseshoe that you can use. So even if you have the adhesive it, it will move more. And that’s where I would say it’s just not as nice. You can still chew with it, but you’re not going to chew a steak very well. You can cut it into this is where, instead of small pieces now it slivers,

Dr. Tanner Townsend 11:21 Yeah.

Dr. Josh Muir 11:22 And if you do that, yeah, it’s a different style of eating steak, but cut it into the slivers, and again, enjoy the heck out of it. Be grateful that you’re to this point now, versus no teeth or versus just having to, you know, painfully chew with these broken down teeth.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 11:42 Yeah, I think the thing to remember, out of all this, out of all the different options that are out there for people that have really broken down teeth, and then you’re either going to get a denture, a Snap-In denture, or a screwed in fixed case, or an All-On-4, it is way better than what you probably started with, and that you came in with being able to smile again and then being able to choose something again. And there’s different ranges, of course, depending on the treatment, but what a blessing it is to be able to smile and chew again and to be able to enjoy food.

Dr. Josh Muir 12:18 Yeah, that kind of reminds me, too, of just that blessing we are blessed to live in this time where I was going over this with a patient today. She worked in dentistry in the 80s, and she has been out of dentistry since then, but we’re just talking about how things have changed. And in the 80s, they would they would say, Man, I wish we had something that would allow us to do this. Well, now fast forward 30-40, years, and we actually do have something that does exactly what they were wishing for.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 12:54 Yeah.

Dr. Josh Muir 12:54 So we have these technologies, we have these treatments, and we really, as far as the joy of food, reuniting people through these meals. It’s all possible now. The last part to focus on, really, is, you know, long, long term. This is one of those topics and treatments that we look to the future. So I mean, how many years do you have left? We have people that are in their 20s, 30s, 40s, 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s, that go through any number of these treatments, and we say, well, what do you want the quality of your life to be for the next 60 years, 50 years, 20 years, 10 years.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 13:37 Yeah.

Dr. Josh Muir 13:37 And you know, this is what, this is what adds quality. Thank you for giving me my life back. You know, what would you say? Turns out, you don’t have to give up eating.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 13:49 Yeah.

Dr. Josh Muir 13:51 Turns out, yeah, it is a process, but there’s a light at the end of the tunnel. It’s a beautiful light. What’s your key takeaway point from all of this, if you were to talk to a patient needing some treatment like that?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 14:04 Yeah, I think, I think what I would say is something similar to what you said, is that it’s a process, but man, the juicy steak that’s sitting at the end. So, so worth it.

Dr. Josh Muir 14:18 Yeah.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 14:18 So, so worth it.

Dr. Josh Muir 14:19 And smiling at your kids at Christmas dinner or whatever it is, you know, it’s it’s fantastic. We’d invite you to join us for a consult. If it’s something that you’re interested in. We’re happy to take a look. We don’t charge for the consults. What we do is we try to give you the options that appear to be the best for you based off of your bone structure and anatomy and health, and then we give you the information so you can make a decision on what makes the most sense for you. Give us a call. We’re happy to schedule that, and we appreciate you listening, guys, this has been another episode of Smile Reconstruction Podcast on dental implants and Josh Muir

Dr. Tanner Townsend 15:01 Tanner Townsend,

Dr. Josh Muir 15:02 Thank you guys, see you next time.