Dental choice

42m. I didn’t take care of my teeth as a child and have bad dental genetics going back generations. Around age 20 I went through half dozen major surgeries to repair and correct everything. Ten years later, it all started falling apart, so I did it again. And now, ten years later, it’s reoccurring. I had a great smile, but it’s again all falling apart. $100k and a dozen major surgeries, still failing. My mouth is hygienically healthy, but I’m still dealing with poor care from childhood.

I have two options:

  1. I can repair it all again, combining bridges and individual implants, several of them. However, my remaining teeth will all fail over the next handful of years. Then it requires an 8 month heal time before the implant goes in. Every once in awhile, I’ll have a hole in my smile for 8mos. The end result will be a mouth of individual implants, which is the best option. But it also means this teeth falling out and holes in my smile will continue for years longer. Medically, it’s the best route. But the experience sucks and could last for a decade longer. Financially… this guy offered to let me pay monthly payments and if it’s never paid off he doesn’t care. So his approach isn’t financially driven.

  2. The other option is called all on 4. They remove all the teeth and place 4-6 implants top and bottom (implants in the gums, it’s not the visible tooth). Then, the teeth are made all as one unit, and gets screwed into the implants. Nothing covers the pallet like dentures would, and the teeth don’t come out. The process is 8hr major surgery with iv sedation. You leave with temporary (but screwed in) teeth. I’m told the first 3-5 days is awful, and it gets progressively better from there. Temporaries aren’t the greatest, but it allows one to leave with teeth that day. I’d have a lisp and have to overcome that. Soft food for 4mos, at which time the permanents get put in. They are more comfortable, and feel close to natural, but not exactly. Requires learning to eat properly again, because there’s no nerve ending it’s, you can’t feel your teeth like natural can. I’m told around 6mos is when you feel “complete” and closest to natural. The biggest risk is by pulling everything, there’s no option but this. If this can’t work for me, or I can’t work with it, there aren’t any further options.

Option 1 requires this awful experience to drag on for years longer, leaving me insecure that my teeth will or have fallen out. I’m not a missing tooth type person. It gives me the best end result after years of more torture. Option 2 takes all that away in a day. Recovery is rough, and worst case scenario is I’m fucked with nowhere to go.

I’ve been sitting on this for 8mos now, and can’t make a choice. I’ve gotten seven opinions which all vary. Spent two months with a psychologist talking about it - and I still can’t decide. I went the safe route, then 4mos into it, lost a front tooth. I have to make this decision already.. I can’t sleep, think about it obsessively, and I’m missing teeth now.

What should I do?

Posted May 7, 2026, 12:39 PM UTC

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