Center For Progressive Dentistry » Mini Dental Implant

Recent dentistry on my OWN certified dental assistant

Dr. Santelli — Sun, 02 Oct 2011 20:26:49 +0000

My dental assistant of 36 years, Joanne Bray, recently needed some long overdue dentistry. Years ago Joanne fractured her lower jaw and lost a few of her lower front teeth in an accident. I had made her a permanently fixed porcelain bridge about 30 years ago to replace what she had and it has served her well all of these years. However it was starting to look its age (as we ALL are) and we decided to use more modern materials and a few mini dental implants to replace the three missing teeth. We also, with the help of our pre-dental student Anthony, did one root canal and removed a small piece of root that was embedded in her jaw. After the three mini implants were placed we made her up a custom fabricated acrylic temporary until her permanent porcelain bridge is completed.
When I called Jaonne that evening to see how she was doing this is what she had to say:
Joe, I have to share with you my experience with my dental appointment today. You know the FEAR I have always had and the pounding in my heart started BEFORE I sat in the dental chair. I knew I was going to need a root canal and I was very concerned what you were going to find under my 30 year old bridge. I have to tell you I felt NO PAIN from the beginning until the end. Once again you performed your MAGIC! I could not believe how easy it was to have THREE mini implants placed, a root canal peformed and a root removed from my lower jaw. The fact that you and Anthony could do all of that in under two hours and then I was able to assist for you in the afternoon was totally astonishing to me. I have not even taken an aspirin and ALL of the novacaine has long worn off. I am so please to be a part of such a wonderful and caring office that creates beautiful SMILES…PAINLESSLY for all who come to us for dental care.
Thank you soooo much!
Joanne

Joanne Bray: She’s the BEST!!!

Dr. Santelli — Sun, 07 Aug 2011 17:36:35 +0000

Hello out there,
I just have to do a little bragging on my dental assistant of 35 years, Joanne Bray. This past Tuesday we decided to do some dentistry on Joanne that we had been putting off for way too long. It involved the lower front teeth (6 in all) where Joanne had a very old fixed porcelain bridge that had outlived its usefulness. First off after getting Joanne very numb using the PAINLESS WAND, I removed the old bridge. Joanne had lost her two lower front teeth long before I met her so we replaced those two teeth with two mini dental implants. Then we proceeded to perform a root canal on another tooth that had an exposed nerve. We then removed a root of a tooth that was not serving any purpose and lastly placed a very attractive temporary bridge until she gets some healing and we can proceed with the permanent porcelain bridge.
As you are all aware I always call my patients that evening after any difficult dentistry, which this certainly was. However, I got invited to a Red Sox game that got delayed two hours due to rain and I didn’t get home that night until 1:30 AM. Needless to say I did not call Joanne to see how she was doing. I figured I’d wait until the next morning but when I read my e-mails Joanne had already responded to the treatment. After having all of that dentistry done she ended up needing only two Ibuprofen that evening. She also said aside from there being NO pain, that the implants were the easiest part of the entire procedue. It was great hearing this especially coming from the lady who helps me place these EVERY day!
Oh, by the way, Joanne and I also saw a full load of patients the SAME afternoon of the morning that I treated her! There are very few if any people I know who could have done what Joanne did, come away SMILING, work another half day and then send me a beautiful e-mail congratulating me on the great job I did and how little discomfort she felt during and right afterwards.
You might be asking, “Who acted as my dental assistant during this whole procedure?” Some of you know that during this past year a young pre-dental student (son of a patient of ours) has been observing some of our dentistry. I told Anthony that helping us out would look good on his dental school application. He jumped at the chance and did remarkably well.
In a few weeks you’ll get to see the new porcelain teeth that my dental lab will create for Joanne. I feel like the “luckiest” dentist in the world having known and worked closely with this AMAZING lady!Your comments are very welcome and have a great day.Dr. Joe

Our Vietnam Vet is doing GREAT

Dr. Santelli — Fri, 20 May 2011 14:43:26 +0000

As many of you are aware, this year we decided to do a complete SMILE MAKEOVER for a war veteran GRATIS. The winner of our little contest served in Vietnam and then almost lost his life in a snow mobile accident in 1999 in N.H. At the time he lost most of his teeth and broke most of the bones in his face. We started our reconstruction a few weeks ago. The end result will be a total of ten mini implants and SNAP-ON dentures and the roof of his mouth will NOT be covered with the denture. In this way he’ll taste his food better, his speech will be better and he will not gag or need denture adhesives EVER! We have estimated that the cost of this treatment would have been close to $20,000. After 40 wonderful years in this profession it was my way of giving back to society in a very meaningful way.As we progress I will keep you posted and we’ll also post before and after pictures of this war hero and lucky contest winner. As we approach Memorial Day we need to ALL reflect on what the thousands of men and women who served in ANY American war have meant to this nation. And for those who gave the ultimate sacrifice, their own lives, we bow our heads in their honor.
God bless!

WBZ-TV CBS Boston News

Dr. Santelli — Mon, 16 May 2011 16:13:00 +0000

By Jonathan Elias, WBZ-TV
May 12, 2011 7:07 PM

DUXBURY (CBS) – There’s a dentist in Duxbury worth knowing. His name is Joseph Santelli. He served our country as a Navy captain during Vietnam. And for the last 30 years, he has been a dentist. Recently he offered a deal: full dental reconstruction for a veteran, but they would have to write why the deserved it. Two-hundred people applied. The winner is a man who lost more than a few teeth following a snowmobile accident, some 35 years ago. The reconstruction will cost more than $10,000. Santelli is doing the work, and providing the supplies for free. It will change this man’s life in a meaningful way. Santelli has often done charitable things without wanting it to be known. This time around, his friend contacted me and said everyone should know what he’s doing and why. I can’t wait to see the after pictures.

Patient can’t believe all we did for her

Dr. Santelli — Tue, 10 May 2011 16:26:24 +0000

Mrs. M.K. just let us know that we have saved her from more serious dental concerns by seeing her as soon as she called our office and in a matter of minutes resolving her concerns. Her treatment involved placing 4 mini implants in her lower jaw. Her new denture now SNAPS into place for her. She wears it 24/7 and only takes it out to clean it once/day. She even sleeps with it in her mouth. For the first time since she has been wearing dentures she does not need any messy adhesives…EVER!

And with all they are finding out about the zinc (a heavy metal) content in the denture adhesives, not ever having to use that awful stuff again is a great thing for our patients.

Disabled American Veteran

Dr. Santelli — Thu, 14 Apr 2011 13:07:47 +0000

Many local people may have heard WPLM’s contest for a Disabled American Veteran. We have teamed up to create a perfect SMILE for a veteran so he or she can get back into society and the job market more easily. WPLM received hundreds of responses of which they were able to verify 50 service people. After a grueling 2 weeks they were able to narrow the search down to ONE lucky winner. For the past two months WPLM has run the contest whereby the serviceman or woman could nominate them selves or a friend/relative could nominate them for valiant service to our country. All we can say right now is the winner is a male who lives in Taunton and is missing almost all of his teeth. We will be meeting him and doing a comprehensive dental exam sometime in May. We hope to get started by Memorial Day (appropriate) and finish up by or before 4th of July (also very appropriate).

We’ll keep you informed as we create a NEW and HANDSOME SMILE for this lucky and very BRAVE person!

Snap-On denture in ONE HOUR

Dr. Santelli — Mon, 11 Apr 2011 21:26:10 +0000

Just finished up a Snap-On lower denture for one of our patients in ONE hour. She was very apprehensive so we used nitrous oxide gas which made her very relaxed (no charge for this service) and then gave her plenty of novacaine which she never felt because we use the WAND which is all computerized and you don’t even feel the initial pin prick. Pretty good…HUH?

We placed 4 mini dental implants, attached her old denture to them and when I called her tonight to see how she was doing she was at a restaurant already having dinner. If you or a person you know is having trouble keeping their dentures in place without gobs of denture adhesives please show them this blog post and PLEASE have them call our office at 781-934-9444 for a FREE consultation. In 60-90 minutes their problems are GONE FOREVER!

Dr. Santelli

Patient LOVES not having her palate covered by her upper denture

Dr. Santelli — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 00:14:17 +0000

Just completed a palateless upper denture on Mrs. D.P .this afternoon. We used 6 mini implants and when I called her tonight to see how she was doing she claims she did not even take any of the pain meds I gave her. She absolutely LOVES tasting her food again and she will NEVER, EVER have to use those gooey denture adhesives again. Also, she can keep her dentures in her mouth 24 hours a day. She takes them out once a day to rinse her mouth and that is it. The entire treatment took about an hour with NO discomfort whatsoever.

I sure wish more denture wearers would avail themselves to this technology. There is no pain involved, very little bone is needed, you get your teeth right away and the cost is less than one-half what conventional implants would cost. And the other great thing is we offer a FREE Mini Implant consultation including any necessary x-rays. What do you have to lose?!

Another life changing experience!

Dr. Santelli — Mon, 28 Mar 2011 13:13:39 +0000

Just placed 10 mini implants on a full denture wearer in our practice. He lost all his teeth in Vietnam years ago when his troop was ambushed by the Vietcong. He was in hand to hand combat and the Vietcong hit him several times in the mouth and about his head. Just as the Vietcong was going to shoot him to death another US soldier in the platoon shot the Vietcong dead. It does not get any closer than that!

If I can get permission from Mr. P.M. I will post his before and after pictures. He is a TRUE war hero and I am proud to say I know him and was able to restore something that was so tragically taken from him when he was in his 20’s.

Good luck P.M. and thank you for all you did!!!

Dangers of Denture Adhesives

Dr. Santelli — Fri, 25 Mar 2011 13:41:19 +0000

As you may have already heard recently it was discovered that most denture adhesives, used to hold full dentures in your mouth, have a heavy metal ZINC as one of their ingredients. Some the symptoms of Zinc over-exposure are numbness to the extremities, loss of taste and bowel problems. Many major manufacturers of denture adhesives have already begun to reformulate their products without ZINC. If you are having any of the above symptoms and you in fact ARE using denture adhesives for your dentures, you may want to give us a call for a FREE mini implant consultation to see if you are a candidate to have a SNAP-ON denture(s). This will permanently eliminate the future use of any type denture adhesive that you may be currently using.