That was the simple part. He had nursed along this slowly failing fixed prosthesis. But he was not only concerned about having a removable prosthesis that covered his palate and triggered his claustrophobia, he was worried he would find difficulty in functioning with it for an entire year while his staged surgeries unfolded.
Extractions, bone grafts, and fixture placement led him to be concerned about whether he could function properly on a daily basis — chewing, speaking, and going out in public.
This concern grew even stronger as I showed him the standard possibilities of the current landscape of interim treatment partials and flippers. So he told me, with a half-smile on his face, that if I could not come up with a solution that would work for him, he would go “toothless” and tell the world that this was the best his son (“the dentist”) could do for his father!
Then I remembered listening to Dr. Marc Liechtung’s lecture on Snap-On Smile. I realized this could be the answer my father and I were looking for — a comfortable, clasp-free, palate-free removable prosthesis that he could function with and look good in for almost a year of treatment time.
Two full PVS impressions, a full occlusal bite, and several photos later, my case was on its way to DenMat’s lab in Santa Maria, Calif. Three weeks later, I was placing one of the easiest full arch removable restorations I have ever had the pleasure of delivering. This came right after my father’s three-hour surgery at the periodontist’s office.
