Which Treatments Am I Suitable For?

In stages. First, clear photographs of your teeth and any existing X-rays let a clinician grade the broad picture. Then a video consultation covers your medical history, medications and goals. On arrival, a CBCT 3D scan and clinical examination confirm (or refine) the plan before anything irreversible happens. A plan that changes slightly after the scan is normal; a plan invented without one is not.

Very few absolutely: recent heart attack or stroke, active cancer treatment in the jaw area, high-dose intravenous bisphosphonate therapy, and severe uncontrolled immune disease. Most everything else — controlled diabetes, treated blood pressure, thyroid conditions, well-managed heart disease — is compatible with implant surgery with sensible precautions. The key word throughout is 'controlled'.

Almost certainly yes, if it is controlled. With an HbA1c under roughly 7–8%, implant success rates approach those of non-diabetics. Uncontrolled diabetes is different — healing and infection risks rise significantly. My standard advice: get your numbers in range with your physician first, tell the clinic your latest HbA1c honestly, and expect slightly longer healing protocols. Diabetes managed well is a detail, not a barrier.

It does not disqualify you, but you deserve the honest numbers: smokers have roughly two to three times the implant failure rate, slower healing, more infections and worse gum outcomes. Ideally stop entirely; at minimum, stop two weeks before surgery and eight weeks after — the healing window is where most smoking damage occurs. Vaping is likely less harmful but not neutral. Your surgeon must know the truth to plan safely.

Downwards, yes: implants wait until jaw growth finishes, around 18. Upwards, effectively no — health status matters, not birth year. I have placed full-arch implants in fit patients in their eighties who chew steak today. For veneers and crowns there is no upper age at all. The question is never 'am I too old?' but 'is my health stable and are my expectations realistic?'

Yes — after it is treated and stable. Placing implants into an infected mouth is planting seeds in contaminated soil: the same bacteria that destroyed bone around teeth attack implants (peri-implantitis). Good clinics treat the gum disease first, verify stability, and then place implants, with a stricter maintenance schedule afterwards. Any clinic willing to skip that sequence is optimising for speed, not for you.

Someone with fundamentally healthy teeth and gums who dislikes the colour, shape, spacing or minor alignment of their front teeth. You need enough enamel for bonding and a bite that will not shear thin porcelain — heavy grinders need planning (and a night guard). Veneers are cosmetic refinement, not structural repair: badly broken-down teeth need crowns instead, and honest clinics will say so.

When a tooth has lost significant structure — large fillings, root canal treatment, cracks or heavy wear. A veneer covers the front surface; a crown wraps and protects the whole tooth. Recommending veneers for structurally compromised teeth is under-treatment that fails early; crowning intact healthy teeth purely for colour is over-treatment. The right answer is tooth-by-tooth, which is why per-tooth plans matter.

Mild to moderate crowding can usually be corrected within veneer or crown design — we effectively realign the visible surfaces in ceramic. Severe crowding or bite problems are better treated with orthodontics first (aligners, sometimes lasting only months), then minimal veneers. Grinding severely rotated teeth into line purely with crowns removes healthy tooth structure irreversibly; a good clinician will show you both paths and their trade-offs.

Usually the opposite: you are exactly who full-arch protocols were designed for. All-on-4 and All-on-6 use the strongest remaining bone zones, deliberately avoiding areas that have shrunk. Even long-term denture wearers with significant resorption are candidates more often than not, sometimes with grafting or zygomatic (cheekbone-anchored) implants in extreme cases. A CT scan settles it — assumptions do not.

They require honesty and planning, not panic. Oral bisphosphonates at typical osteoporosis doses carry a small risk of jaw healing problems; most patients on them still have successful implants with careful technique. High-dose intravenous versions (mainly given in cancer care) are a different category and often shift us toward non-surgical options. Bring your exact medication list — names and doses — to every consultation.

A temporary one for elective surgery — we postpone implants and long procedures until after delivery, less for danger than for principle: elective risk has no place in pregnancy. Urgent dental care, cleanings and genuine emergencies are safe throughout, ideally in the second trimester. Planning a smile makeover? Use the pregnancy to complete hygiene treatment and design, then treat afterwards.

It changes the how, never the what. Sedation dentistry — from a calming tablet through IV sedation to full anaesthesia for full-arch cases — makes every treatment in this guide accessible to anxious patients. What I ask in return is disclosure: tell the clinic the honest depth of your fear in the first email, so the pathway is designed around it rather than improvised in the chair.

Frequently yes, and often it is better dentistry: designing the whole smile at once beats patchwork. The sequencing matters — whitening before final shade selection, gum treatment before anything cosmetic, implants placed early so healing runs while other work proceeds. This is precisely where full-mouth digital planning and a specialist team under one roof justify themselves.

Smoking quantity, blood thinners and 'natural' supplements (several affect bleeding), diabetes numbers, bisphosphonates, immune conditions, previous bad reactions to anaesthesia, and grinding habits. Nobody is judging you — but every one of these changes technique, medication or timing. The consultation form is not bureaucracy; it is the safety briefing. Surprising your surgeon mid-procedure is the outcome nobody wants.

Welcome to real dentistry — there is often more than one defensible route, but the reasoning should be transparent. Ask each to justify their plan against the alternative: 'why bridges here instead of implants?', 'why extract this tooth rather than root-treat it?'. Sound plans survive interrogation. Beware most the plan that is dramatically more aggressive (mass extractions of saveable teeth) or dramatically cheaper — both usually serve the clinic, not you.

Say them out loud and let a clinician respond specifically: 'I want teeth like this photo', 'I never want a denture', 'I need this finished before my wedding in June'. Digital smile previews make aesthetic expectations testable before treatment. A trustworthy clinic will tell you which expectations are achievable, which need compromise, and which are marketing fantasies — before taking your money, not after.

With reputable clinics — and with us — the remote assessment is free: photo review, video consultation and a written provisional plan with fixed pricing. On arrival, the CT scan and full examination are typically included in your package. Be wary of paying meaningful money merely to be told what you need; assessment is the courtship, and clinics confident in their quality absorb its cost.

That it is a conversation, not a verdict. The genuine hard barriers are few; nearly everything else — diabetes, smoking, bone loss, anxiety, age, complicated dental history — is a variable we plan around rather than a door that closes. Share your full story, insist on a scan-based plan, and let suitability be determined by evidence. In thirty years, the patients I could not help at all have been remarkably rare.