An extreme dental makeover involves a full mouth reconstruction using dental implants and fixed porcelain bridges.  Performing a full mouth reconstruction is much like building a highway bridge.  The implants are like the columns that support the bridge, and the porcelain bridges are like the portion of the bridge you drive across.  This is only metaphorical and meant to describe the process by which a dental extreme makeover is actually built in your mouth.  The outcome looks much more attractive than a bridge in the outside world---it looks like a whole new set of white, perfectly natural teeth.

Because the implants are the actual supports in an extreme dental makeover, the actual distance being bridged determines the number of implants.  This is the same principle as building bridges over rivers and highways.  A short bridge over a small stream may need only two columns on either side.  A longer bridge over a 10 lane freeway, however, may need up to ten supports to be safe, stable, and operational.  

When a dentist gives an extreme dental makeover to a patient, he or she first takes a close look at the existing natural teeth and takes measurements of the distances between them.  This distance will determine the number of implants that will be needed to support fixed porcelain bridges that will later be built between implants and any existing teeth that can be capped with porcelain crowns. 

The key to a successful extreme dental makeover is to have the training and knowledge in advanced cosmetic dental science to understand where implants need to be placed and where bridges need to be built.  When there is only a small distance between teeth, we need to only build a short span bridge.  A long span bridge, however, will need one or more implants.  If there is a long space along the bone with no teeth, then only one or two natural teeth, followed by another gap with no teeth, the dentist may also cap the natural teeth and use these as anchor supports for bridges.

The intent behind everything in an extreme dental makeover is to establish a cosmetically superior outcome from a position of strength and stability.  When enough support has been created using implants and natural teeth, the dentist can then apply all porcelain bridges and crowns to the in the smile.  Sometimes people find it financially challenging, though, to invest in this complex combination of implants, crowns, and bridgework.  For those individuals, there are some more affordable, temporary options that can be explored.  Many times people will get the necessary implants to build the future supports for bridges, and then they will invest in partial dentures that will work as viable tooth replacements while they are saving additional funds to later return to the dentist for the application of permanent, more durable tooth replacements.

Extreme dental makeovers offer every human being, regardless of how badly damaged their teeth have become, or how many teeth they have lost, the opportunity to smile with confidence and beauty with a full set of teeth that look natural, healthy, and white.