Dental Implants

It was time for me to have my own mouth done. But as my own experience showed, not every doctor is confident or well trained in every procedure. And with the investment required, particularly for a full mouth reconstruction, you want to have the best dentist for your procedure you can possibly find.

In my case, that was Dr. Golpa, and I was prepared to engage in a little medical tourism and fly to Las Vegas several times to have it done. As it turns out, that was not as unusual as I thought. Dr. Golpa has treated patients literally from all over the world, including contestants in the Mrs./Ms. Globe pageant, working out an efficient protocol that allows him to finish many smile makeovers in as little as a few office visits. And because he is a specialist in all aspects of cosmetic dentistry, as well as implants, there is no running to this doctor for this part and that doctor for that part, so even more complicated cases like my own can be handled long-distance. It doesn’t hurt that his office is in Las Vegas, either! With some planning and support, the whole experience can be turned into a series of mini medical vacations, and the final bonus is that flights to Las Vegas from just about anywhere are plentiful and cheap.

I am not saying there may not be a dentist capable of delivering what you need near your home - but do make sure you are really making the right choice, and get a second opinion if you have any doubts. Ask to speak to other patients and research your doctor and your procedures carefully. In my case, I figured it was cheaper to fly to Las Vegas to see Dr. Golpa, who I had researched so thoroughly, and make sure it all got done right the first time.

The first step was dealing with those missing baby teeth. I flew to Vegas and had three titanium posts implanted where the missing teeth were. Dr. Golpa constructed temporary bridges to hide the cut-down teeth from my previous bridges, so I didn’t have to walk around with big holes in my mouth.

I flew home two days later with a prescription for painkillers that I never filled. The only real discomfort I had was while flying, in the pressurized cabin. As soon as I stepped off the plane, I was fine.

A word about Dr. Golpa’s staff - fantastic! This was quite a different experience for me, as I had come to dread visiting dental offices. I often felt like I was treated with disgust for having dental problems in the first place, and lectured like a two-year-old. Every member of Dr. Golpa’s office seems to be as excited about your coming transformation as you are, and it makes a big difference in the overall experience.

I looked through dozens of “before” and “after” photos of Dr. Golpa’s patients. I was relieved to see that even in the most extreme cases, there was always something reminiscent, although greatly improved, of the person’s original teeth. This was not a cookie-cutter process and I was not going to have to worry about having a set of big white teeth that looked like anybody else’s.

I had already had had impressions done and I was shown a model of what my teeth looked like. I almost burst into tears. It looked, to me, like my teeth when I was a teenager. I had forgotten - but I recognized them immediately. It’s hard to describe how that felt.

My healing was uneventful, although I had a co-worker who suffered quite a bit with his dental implants and I wondered how it would be. Basically, it was nothing. I never really needed the pain medication. I only had to take two days off from work, flying home on the weekend. I was tired, mostly from the time changes, but otherwise it was if nothing had happened.

I had told my coworkers about my adventure and everybody wanted to look in my mouth. You might consider not doing that - I found it appalling and told them there would be no peeking until I was finished! Everyone was amazed that I was back to work and feeling fine so quickly. I, however, was not surprised. I had talked to other dental implant patients of Dr. Golpa’s and they had told me whatever he does, it works, and pain and healing were really not an issue.

I had the opportunity to talk to Dr. Golpa about his success rate with implants - almost 100 percent, and the one that didn’t go well was with a patient who chomped down on a steak bone during the healing period, something he was told to avoid. You can eat pretty normally, or at least I did, but you want to avoid jawbreakers and other hard to chew foods.

Dr. Golpa seemed surprised, but I told him I had read forums of other dentists where they had discussed the many problems they sometimes had with implants. He said he has just evolved a protocol that eliminates the risk of infection, but I think he has something special going on, skill-wise, a natural knack for the surgery itself. And since he does the reconstructions too, he has a “big-picture” take on the whole process.

As I said before, I felt safer, protected, “shored-up” with my new implants in place, knowing that they were anchoring my jaw and preventing further bone loss and facial shifting.