Hi Jon,

Ok...let's see if I am understanding you correctly.

#1. 5 implants were placed in the lower jaw and one failed.

#2. The failed implant is to be replaced within a 3 month period. When is that?

#3. The 5 lower implants are going to hold a bridge or a denture??

#4.Your existing upper bridge will be removed and the anchor teeth will be extracted and replaced by implants that will hold a new bridge or denture?

#5. Originally you were told you would be wearing temporary dentures through the implant healing phase, but no one could seem to fit the dentures in properly, correct? So you currently have no teeth on the bottom and just an old bridge on the top front?

#6. Do you currently have any back teeth on either arch? If not, are there plans to replace those teeth??

Jon, there is always a concern about an "anchor" tooth getting decayed or a dental implant "anchor" tooth failing. Any time an anchor tooth or implant has a problem, it affects the entire bridge or denture that is attached to it. That's why natural anchor teeth need to be very healthy to begin with or dental implants used as anchor teeth need to be placed in solid healthy bone.
Depending on your case, if an anchor goes bad, you may or may not have to do the entire bridge or denture all over again. It depends if there are other anchors near the one that failed.

The prostho department is capable of doing extractions, implants and full restoration. It's not so much a matter of which department does what, it's how skilled the dentist is that is doing the work. However, no one seems to have given you any logical answer as to why the prostho dept is doing everything unless it just fits better into their schedule?? Has the oral surgery department turned you over to the prostho dept because of a change in treatment plan?

The patient advocate is someone who acts as a mediator between the clinicians and the patient in cases like yours where the communication has not been clear due to the differing of "professional" opinions by the clinicians.

I feel terrible that you are going in there on monday unsure of what is going to happen. Even under the best of circumstances where the communication was good, the patient may still have some questions about what is going to take place because it's all so complicated especially if the treatment plan has changed at all.

Jon, if you want to know what they are doing before they do it....... ask them. Not in a threatening or doubting way, but more curious and concerned. If they get impatient with you, nicely tell them you don't mean to be annoying with your questions, but you would appreciate knowing what they have planned for you since the treatment plan has changed so many times. Legally, they have to inform you and get your permission prior to performing any type of dental procedure. You are a patient there, not a guinea pig.

Bryanna

Hi, Bryanna. Now tell me if I'm answering you clearly.

#1. Right
#2. Should be July.
#3. Bridge
#4. Bridge
#5. No teeth on bottom. 6 teeth in front on bridge. Then, not involved at
all with bridge, there is 1 capped tooth on each side of bridge. Total: 8 upper teeth. No bottom teeth.
#6. Don't know the proper definition of arch unless you're referring to the total number of teeth making an arch in the upper and the lower set. Anyway, #5 tells you all I've got anyway.

The pros department might have people capable of all this, but my intern is in his first term in any department after his graduation. He has to do this. It isn't what he's interested in practicing. I asked him when I met him. The interns in surgery -even in first term - do surgery every day.

On your last paragraph... refer to letter where I wrote that they gave me about 4 pages of very small print to read and sign when I signed in for surgery on April 15. They do that in any kind of surgery, and you have to sign it or they won't do surgery. The whole idea is that you hold them blameless for basically anything that happens. There's no option, so you sign. Unless you sue them, you're held to that.

I agree with the medical profession that there are too many law suits, but I also agree with the legal profession that law suits seem to be the only way for a patient to be heard when wrong is done. The patient pays twice when this happens.

Jon