Dr. Tanner Townsend and Dr. Josh Muir discuss the patient's perspective during dental implant procedures, focusing on the emotional and practical concerns. They highlight common patient questions about pain, recovery, and daily life disruption. Dr. Muir emphasizes the importance of preparation and the reassuring presence of a well-prepared team. He notes that patients often fear the unknown but are pleasantly surprised by the minimal pain and quick recovery. They stress the importance of gentle care post-surgery, gradual reintroduction to eating, and the use of prototypes for final adjustments. The conversation underscores the need for thorough patient education and support throughout the process.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 0:05 Welcome back to the Smile Reconstruction Podcast. I’m your host, Dr. Tanner Townsend, along with my co-host, Dr. Josh Muir, and today, we’re going to talk a little bit about the perspective of the patient and kind of what they experience as they go through a major dental procedure, such as getting dental implants. And so if I told you right now, Dr. Muir, that you needed to get all your teeth extracted and get dental implants, to have an all-on-four or a fixed arch, or an all-on-six or a three-on-six, what is the very first thing that’s going through your mind?

Dr. Josh Muir 0:42 Holy smokes, I’m losing my teeth?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 0:44 Yeah

Dr. Josh Muir 0:45 You know, you’re taking a part of me. That’s a big deal.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 0:48 Yeah

Dr. Josh Muir 0:48 Huge deal. I can’t even imagine it.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 0:52 The big thing that goes through my head is, like, how much is this gonna hurt? How long is the recovery? How long is this gonna take? Those are the things I think of, and also the questions we get from our patients. I think those are the main questions we get.

Dr. Josh Muir 1:08 How much is this going to disrupt my daily life? Like, Hey, I still have to work, or Ihave got responsibilities I’ve got to fulfill. Can I still do those? What’s going to happen here?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 1:18 Yeah, so I think those are all really common questions that we get, hey, what’s going to happen here? What are you picturing happens when someone calls us for the first time, like, they’re calling Bailey, who works with us? What do you think is going through that patient’s head when they’re kind of looking into this path?

Dr. Josh Muir 1:37 So you nailed it. They’re looking into it. And so nowadays, where we have YouTube and Facebook and internet searches and websites and just in general, most you know, the public is very knowledgeable that some treatments exist. They may not understand every aspect of it. So, when people call for the first time. They know what they’re expecting for an end goal, but they know nothing about how to get there. Yeah, and that’s where that apprehension comes. It is overwhelming. How long is this going to take? Well, am I going to feel it? Well, what’s it going to feel like the next day? All of those things come into play. So when someone’s first calling, they know really. Even the people who know a lot know very little.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 2:28 And I love how you said, like, they know their end goal, but they just don’t know how to get there. And I think that’s one of the things that we try to do in our office really well. Okay, here’s how you get to your goal, and here are all the steps involved. Let’s say they’ve gotten through those. I want to attack this goal. I’m willing to take the steps. The big day of surgery comes after we’ve had an appointment or two for records and scans. What is going through your head, if you’re the patient that’s getting the surgery done that day, yeah.

Dr. Josh Muir 3:01 So they show up for the surgery. Well, I would say the first thing is that they’ll notice is how prepared everyone is. So we have the sedation provider there, with an assistant. We have on our side. We have a doctor and probably two assistants. We have five people there for this one patient right when they walk in the door. And I think that’s something that surprises them. It’s like, whoa. Like, these guys are ready for me. They’ve got they’ve been planning on me coming here. This day is for me. And I think just that simple visualization for them, or realization, is that it helps them settle, it helps them go, okay, when I wake up, this will be better than when I went to sleep.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 3:49 Yeah.

Dr. Josh Muir 3:49 And so then, you know, the sedation is great, and like we’ve talked about before, we have multiple options for that. But if you’re sedated, there’s a discussion, you’re put to sleep. You go through all of that, you wake up, and while your grogginess is fading over time, we’re making the teeth we put them in. You bite down as we make any necessary adjustments. And then finally, you get to look in the mirror, and that’s when, even though you’re still, you know, recovering from the sedation, the real realization starts that, oh my goodness, like this is, this is going to work out.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 4:33 Yeah, that is just crazy. I think you’ve nailed how that surgery day looks. So, when someone then just goes home with those new teeth, you’ve walked through how, like the surgery day goes and you get the teeth, what is, what are they doing or thinking? What does that really mean to them when they go home with their teeth from the eyes of the patient?

Dr. Josh Muir 4:55 Well, we have to break it up a little bit, because even. Even though I paint it as being all rosy, the patient still had some fear, because they’re numb at this point, and they’re trying to figure out what’s this going to look like in a day. I mean, we’re going to tell them tomorrow, you’re going to feel great, like nothing was even done. But they still have some fear about that when they leave our appointment. So I really like the next day, and I say the next day, because we’ll sometimes, or oftentimes, bring them back. Hey, let’s just, let’s just look at it. Let you ask some questions now that you’ve had it in for a day, and you know, by then the grogginess of the sedation is gone, so you’re more awake, yeah, and it’s just, again, I feel like we owe it to the patient to provide that opportunity. Some patients can’t come the next day, okay? Well, when you can come, we’re going to be available for you as they’re finally realizing that it’s just amazing that you can see that stress melt away.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 6:00 That’s where you see them relax.

Dr. Josh Muir 6:02 They relax. Yes.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 6:05 I see it all time. I did a case on Monday where very nervous coming into it, and then the next day we put the teeth in, and he’s like, I feel so good. He’s like, I was hurting yesterday. You know, just you’re sore afterwards. You’ve had your mouth open for a long time, but when the teeth are in and we’re checking the bite the next day, it’s like, I feel good. It’s just crazy.

Dr. Josh Muir 6:27 Yeah, you know, when we first started doing these, you know, over 10 years ago, it was interesting, because I would hear patients say, Man, I’m surprised. I’m surprised. I’m I’m really not hurting. And I’m like, Really, you’re not. You just took all your teeth out, placed all these implants, did bone grafting, put new teeth in, and you’re not hurting. You know, the real realization for me came when my father-in-law needed this treatment. All on for treatment, and after the treatment, he stayed with us for a couple of days, and so I got to see firsthand and check in every day, whether I wanted to or not. How are you feeling? And kind of just like you said the first day, he’s like, Man, I hope this was worth it. I don’t know this is so new to me, teeth or no teeth. Like he had teeth. He liked that, but it’s weird. He was worried. He said, I’m just worried what tomorrow’s gonna bring. And tomorrow came. And he said, guys, I just can’t believe it, I it doesn’t hurt. And I probed. I asked him, okay, so when you say it doesn’t hurt, you know, meaning it’s tolerable, it’s bearable. He said, No, I honestly feel like you didn’t do anything. He pointed somewhere in his mouth, but he said, ” It truly doesn’t hurt. And we see that over and over and over, and I think that’s one of the the miracles of modern dentistry and modern medicine, is that we’re able to do that.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 8:00 Yeah, I think you’ve hit it on the head, and I think that’s where is that recovery the same for every single person? No, but time and time again, we do see that recovery because of the techniques and the medicine that that we’ve learned and prepared for and trained for. So after all of that, we’ve walked through the console, you know, we’ve they’ve had the goal, they’ve had the surgery, they’ve gone through the recovery. What’s one thing you want someone to hear that’s been putting this off? That’s whether it’s for fear or whether it’s for not being able to see the route they need to take to get to their goal, or the fear of the surgery or the recovery. What would you say to that person?

Dr. Josh Muir 8:40 So patients still do have a lot of questions. They think the questions initially are, how long is this going to take, how much is it going to cost? But then they have it done and they say, Well, wait, you know, how do I brush How do I take care of these? What foods do I eat? You know, do I need to be careful for a certain amount of time? And so, what we hear when patients come to our office is, “Thank you for taking the time to let me ask these questions that I didn’t know I had.” Yeah, and so you know that that brings peace to the patient, but what recovery really looks like is you’re going to brush from day one gently. Yeah, you know you’re gonna gently brush. You’re not gonna crank on it with a with a hard, plastic bristled brush. You’re gonna be gentle with it. You’re going to want to ease into eating, because your teeth are different. You need to learn how your jaw is going to come together, how your how your teeth are going to close, and how hard do you bite? And you know, a lot of times we’re changing the position of teeth, we’re changing the shape of teeth, the length of teeth, and so you’ve got to relearn this. And then the other thing is, just like, if you break your arm, you’re in a cast, and you don’t want to be using your arm a lot, yeah, you. You need to be careful when you’re healing, it is bone healing, and so there are limitations put on how you eat, what you eat, and you want to follow those completely, strictly, so it is going to heal correctly.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 10:14 Yeah.

Dr. Josh Muir 10:14 So that’s the reality of it. One more reality that we touched on before is teeth in a day doesn’t necessarily mean the entire thing is completed in one day. It means we owe it to the patient to get some teeth for them in that day, so they’re never going for a time without teeth. Patients need people. Need teeth, yeah, but we also acknowledge that people need the opportunity to make improvements. You know, for me to ask you, okay, you’ve had snaggle teeth for 20 years. Tell me, how wide would you like your teeth to be? You have no clue. I don’t know. Yeah, you have no clue.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 11:00 And honestly, like, that’s where I think the whole teeth in a day thing is just like the groups, there are certain groups that do, and we’re not throwing shade at any of these groups, but like, it’s hard, and we owe it to the patient, like you said, to figure out what looks right in their face. And sometimes it’s not on the first try. That’s why we have a prototype.

Dr. Josh Muir 11:21 We always start with a prototype, and you may wear that prototype for four months, and we may hit it on the head, yeah, but we give the opportunity for you to go home, and you may love it, but your granddaughter says, Grandpa, why is your smile so weird? And you’re like, what? Why? What makes it weird? Well, your teeth are long or whatever, and from your family’s perspective, they need it toned down a little bit. Maybe you’ve always wanted super bright white teeth, but when you actually get around other people, you realize your teeth really stand out. They’re brighter than everyone else’s, and your dream was suddenly shifted into something closer to what reality should be. Well, we don’t want to say too bad, so sad. We say, Hey, this is a prototype. That’s why we do that. Let’s, let’s just pull back that bright smile a little bit, and we’ll put it more, a little more natural, maybe a little bit on the bright side, but not stark white, you know?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 12:21 So if that’s something you’re looking into, contact us. We’d love to hear from you and love to help you with this journey. That is today’s episode of smile reconstruction, we will catch you on the next episode. Thank you, and talk to you later.