Syracuse (WSYR-TV) - If you've got a mouth full of silver fillings, you should know that they might not last a lifetime. Someday, you may need dental implants. A former teacher at Homer Middle School found herself in that very situation.
It's hard to imagine Sue Bonne without a smile on her face. But in 2007, this retired music teacher stopped smiling.
"I was losing my smile and I wasn't able to chew because I had lost all of my molars to crumbling teeth," she said.
Sue's dentist in Cortland said there was nothing more he could do for her, so he sent her to Syracuse to see Prosthodontist
Dr. Jeff Stannard.
Using the latest x-ray technology called cone beam, Dr. Stannard get's three dimensional images of Sue's jaw. He sees if she has enough bone to support dental implants, and where the nerves are.
"We can plan implant surgery virtually on a computer screen and have special very exact surgical guides fabricated so that we can then place implants without really making a large incision," Dr. Stannard said.
That means less pain and a quicker recovery. The 3D images also take away some of the guesswork. For example a standard X-ray might show a nerve that looks close to the site of an operation, but a 3D image could show there is actually good distance between the two.
"We're now able to put in a deeper implant because we're assured of where the nerve is," Dr. Stannard says.
Because the new technology sees so much, Stannard thinks will be in every dentist's office within the next ten years. Seven implants later, Sue's dental work is almost done and she's glad she didn't have to wait.
