Try to imagine for a moment a television show about dentistry.
We know. It probably wouldn’t make for exciting TV, but bear with us for a moment.
Now, imagine this show is done in the style of a home restoration show. Maybe we could call it “This Old Mouth”.
Still not planning to save this on your DVR? We don’t blame you but hang in there.
If this show were real, we can envision a few scenarios based on the services we have provided for our patients at Bayou Dental Group.
To be fair, some of the patients who come to our dentist office in Monroe, LA, are characters. Maybe this show could work, after all.
Pilot: Implant Dentures
If we were producing this show, the first episode would be about dentures and dental implants. It might play out something like this.
The featured patient would be someone who was completely edentulous. If we were in charge of casting, we would probably pick someone who had traditional dentures.
In the introductory part of the show, you would meet this person and his or her spouse. You would see scenes of the patient cleaning and putting in his or her dentures before heading out for the day.
At one point, he or she would join some friends for lunch. At the restaurant, the camera would pan over the menu, and our featured patients would say something like, “I really want the corn on the cob and the buttered carrots as my side, but they are just too hard to eat with my dentures.”
Our featured patient would then order a chopped steak with mashed potatoes on the side. Since this shows are about showing the problems that may need to be addressed, his or her dentures would slip out as he or she tried to place this order.
Act Two: The Dentist Office
After a break, we would cut back to a dentist office, where someone like our own Dr. Finley would be shown talking about the benefits of dental implants.
The camera would pull back to reveal that the dentist is talking to our featured patient, at which point the narrator would speak over images that explained the history of dental implants:
“Swedish physician and professor Per-Ingvar Brånemark developed dental implants after
an accident discover while doing research with rabbits. He’d placed titanium cylinders in their leg bones as part of a research experiment about blood flow.
When he realized that the bone had bonded to the cylinders, making them difficult to
remove, Dr. Brånemark spent the next decade developing the modern dental implant.
He placed his first dental implant in a human patient in 1965, and since then dental implants have become a staple of restorative dentistry and tooth replacement.”
Back in the dentist office, the dentist would explain that dental implants are used to replace the roots of missing teeth.
As the dentist talked how implants are used to make teeth implants stable and secure, an illustration would show the steps in the process.
The dentist may use a cone beam scanner like the one we have at Bayou Dental Group to create a 3D model of the feature patient’s jaw (since this particular patient would not have any real teeth).
The dentist would show how the computer-generated 3D model helps in planning the placement of the implants for the greatest benefit to the patient.
Another illustration would show how dentures can be attached to the dental implants and why this makes them much more likely to stay in place than dentures held in place by denture adhesives.
The teaser before the commercial break would be the patient getting ready for his implant procedure.
Conclusion: The Happy Patient
Home improvement shows end on a happy note, and “This Old Mouth” would be the same.
We would jump ahead to months after our patient’s dentures had been bonded to the implants. He or she would be sitting in the same restaurant that he or she visit earlier in the show.
Only, this time, he or she wouldn’t even look at the menu. Instead, when the waiter arrived our patient would say, confidently, “Bring me the fried chicken dinner with carrots and corn on the cob.”
After telling his or her friends how much of a difference that implant-supported dentures have made in his or her life, the screen would cut to a shot of the patient biting into the carrots, the corn, and the chicken without any problems as the closing credits started.
Be The Star Of Our Show
We realize “This Old Mouth” probably won’t start production anytime soon, but there is something we want you to know. We consider all our patients to be featured patients.
That’s true if you are coming to see us about getting implant-supported dentures, tooth-colored fillings, or any other dental restoration at Bayou Dental Group in Monroe, LA.
We also welcome you to make an appointment today if you need teeth replaced or repaired. You can contact us online or call 318-323-9303.