It’s All Relative

Jordan Pysz / iFoundMyDoctor.com
Marc (right) is all smiles when spending time with his son-in-law, Blake, and Blake’s children Blakely and Caleb.

Rick and Janet Villarreal believe in love at first sight because they experienced the phenomenon a little more than 20 years ago.

“We literally bumped into each other one day, and when we did, sparks flew – in a good way,” Janet confirms. “We liked each other instantly.”

Their mutual affinity was sparked in part because they took similar life paths to Norfolk, Virginia, where they met.

Both hailed from California but had spent years moving across the country, Rick for work and Janet because her father was in the military.

After dating for a while and marrying, the couple moved to Florida, where Janet dabbled in real estate and Rick established himself as an administrator for a government contractor 56. “I assist different types of businesses that are trying to procure contracts with the government. I’ve been doing this job in Florida for nearly 20 years.”

Overall, the Villarreals are happy with life here in Florida. But a chronic health condition has long tempered Janet’s delight. She suffers with an autoimmune disease called Sjögren’s syndrome.

With an autoimmune disease, the immune system — the body’s natural defense against disease — destroys healthy tissue by mistake. With Sjögren’s syndrome, the immune system attacks the cells that produce saliva, which affects the health of the teeth.

“Due to the Sjögren’s, I experienced many problems with my teeth,” Janet discloses. “My former dentist didn’t have to pull all my teeth, but he pulled about eight of them. I was pretty embarrassed of my smile because half my teeth were missing. That made it difficult for me to chew as well. But I didn’t want false teeth.

“I had driven by Implant Dentistry of Florida many times and decided to call to see if they take my insurance. They did, so I went in for a consult. I was really impressed and still am. The staff is very professional and really knows what they’re doing.”

Creating Strong Implant Support

At Implant Dentistry of Florida in Melbourne, Alejandro Martinez, DMD, and Jordan Robbins, DMD, provide a full range of implant, cosmetic and general dentistry procedures. They perform all phases of dental implant surgery and multiple options for implant restoration.

Dr. Martinez treated Janet, who came in requesting dental implants.

Dental implants are screw-like bodies that are surgically placed into the jawbone. New bone naturally grows and fuses to the implants to form a solid foundation for replacement teeth.

The replacement teeth can be anything from a single crown that is cemented or screwed onto an implant to a multi-tooth bridge that can be affixed to two or more implants, or a full denture that can snap on and off a series of implants.

Some patients seeking implants require bone grafts to enhance the volume of the jawbone so it can properly support the implant. Janet was such a patient.

“Janet presented to us with virtually no posterior teeth; she had lost the majority of her molars,” Dr. Martinez recalls. “To stabilize her bite, we extracted the molars that were left, which were cracked, and grafted those areas.”

Patients undergoing bone grafts typically need to wait three to six months for the new bone to be strong enough to support implants. The wait allows for proper healing and creates what Dr. Martinez refers to as a “nice landing zone for the implants.”

Janet’s wait was three months, after which Dr. Martinez determined the grafting sites were ready for implants. He then placed five dental implants using a digitally designed surgical guide.

“I selected MegaGen implants to replace Janet’s missing molars and placed all five at the same visit,” Dr. Martinez reports. “After the implants were completely fused with the bone, I took digital scans of the implant locations, designed the crowns and sent them over to our in-house mill to be fabricated.”

Dr. Martinez used Implant Dentistry of Florida’s CEREC CAD/CAM system to make Janet’s crowns. The CEREC system uses computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacturing (CAM) to create customized restorations from blocks of solid porcelain, right in the dental office.

Janet is thrilled with her results.

“These implants will probably outlast me,” Janet enthuses. “I think they’re going to last forever, they’re so strong. And the teeth look very natural. Dr. Martinez went all out to match the crowns to my other teeth. I’m very, very happy with them. Now, I can chew and eat better.”

“It’s Extraordinary”

Encouraged by Janet’s experience, Rick visited Implant Dentistry of Florida as well.

“We had to extract three of Rick’s teeth because they were failing. He wanted to fill in those areas where the teeth were missing. Instead of using adjacent teeth to anchor bridges, we were able to place implants,” Dr. Martinez details. “Fortunately, he had enough bone in his jaw to support the single implants we needed.

“We did have to perform a bone graft for one extracted tooth prior to placing the implant. In all, we placed three implants, two lower molars and one upper premolar. We used the CEREC CAD/CAM system to create the crowns that we placed on top of the implants.”

Like Janet, Rick was impressed by his treatment at Implant Dentistry of Florida.

“Getting the implants was a very precise process, and the work was done well,” he asserts. “And my results were delivered as promised. Dr. Martinez did what he said he would do and my teeth look very natural. I can’t tell the difference between them and my other teeth.

“Dr. Martinez did a great job. He’s professional, knowledgeable and accurate. He’s the right guy in the right field at the right time. He’s got a great personality, too.”

Janet agrees with Rick’s assessment.

“Dr. Martinez is a very smart and capable dentist,” she raves. “And he’s a perfectionist. He wants everything done right, and he goes all out to achieve that goal. I’m really impressed with him.

“I’m impressed by Implant Dentistry of Florida as well. Everything’s digital and modern. In an instant, they can show you on a computer screen what your tooth is going to look like. They actually create and bake the teeth right there in the office. I had no idea dentistry had all this technology. It’s really quite extraordinary.”

Tooth Trauma

As a loan officer with loanDepot, Marc LaRoche arranges mortgages for people purchasing or refinancing homes. He’s been with loanDepot for three years but has been in the lending field since 2004.

“Before that I was in the car industry for 28 years,” Marc recounts. “That job takes up a lot of your free time, so I decided to get out when my daughter graduated from high school. I wanted to get into a field that gave me more time with my family.”

Spending more time with family includes traveling together.

“We love cruising,” the 68-year-old offers.“We’ve cruised the Caribbean many times, and in the last three years, we’ve been traveling overseas to Europe. We’ve cruised out of Spain, Italy and England. This year, we’re planning a land trip. We’ll probably start in Copenhagen and travel to Germany, France and other areas of northern Europe.”

In the spring of 2021, Marc was planning another cruise. This time, however, he resolved to repair a longstanding dental issue before embarking so he would look his best in the photos.

“About 25 years ago, I fell down and hit one of my teeth on something hard,” Marc describes. “I had a crown put on the tooth, but the crown never fit right. It was always a little tilted, which made me unhappy with my smile. I finally decided to get it adjusted so it fit correctly.

“I looked up local dentists on the internet and saw that Implant Dentistry of Florida had great reviews. I ended up going there and seeing Dr. Robbins. She suggested creating a new crown. Then she noticed an issue with the tooth.”

“The initial appearance of Mr. LaRoche’s front tooth, the upper left central incisor that we refer to as number 9, was that of a loose crown. However, after examination and a 3D cone beam CT scan, I could see that the root of the tooth was actually fractured in half horizontally,” Dr. Robbins recalls.

“This fracture may have started as a crack created by the original trauma long ago. As the crack widened over the years, the crown became loose as it separated from the root of the tooth.”

To correct the problem, Dr. Robbins extracted the tooth and placed a bone graft and a MegaGen implant during the same appointment. Three months later, she created a custom abutment and a porcelain crown for Marc’s implant using the practice’s CEREC CAD/CAM system.

“Dr. Robbins pulled the tooth, put in the implant and then gave me what they call a ‘flipper,’ which is basically a fake tooth that’s removable,” Marc details. “I told her we were leaving for a cruise in October, so I needed the permanent tooth by then. She got it done by August.

“And everything was done in-house. Dr. Robbins fit the crown perfectly and matched it up color-wise with my other teeth. I love my new crown; it’s perfect. I smile a lot more now than I did before because of the great work she did.

“I would absolutely recommend Dr. Robbins and Implant Dentistry of Florida. I’m very impressed with the office, and I never waited more than five minutes. Now, I’m using the practice for all of my dentistry.”

Unbelievable Coincidence

Marc was true to his word. Based on his positive experience, he recommended Implant Dentistry of Florida and Dr. Robbins to his son-in-law Blake Reed.

“He told me to go there and see Dr. Robbins. I took his advice,” Blake says.

The 37-year-old works as a crane operator at the Kennedy Space Center in the huge Vehicle Assembly Building, where he helps prepare the rocket that NASA is using for the Artemis moon missions.

“My job involves lifting the booster segments for the Space Launch System rocket, stacking and completing all the operations necessary to get it to the launch pad,” Blake describes. “It’s very interesting being a part of the process. And with a rocket having just launched an unmanned mission to the moon, it’s given a big boost of morale to a lot of people out there.

“We’re going to keep going, too. We’re hopefully going to land on the moon by 2024. I’ll be involved with stacking that rocket. We’ll make all the boosters, stack the core stage and the capsule. We’ll be doing everything necessary for a successful launch. It’s very exciting.”

Like Marc, Blake suffered an injury to his upper left front tooth as a youth. When Blake was 16, the tail of a surfboard crashed through his lip and pushed his left central incisor straight back, damaging the tooth.

“I didn’t lose the tooth completely,” Blake reports. “It was still there for about two weeks and then they did a root canal. They basically ground down the tooth to a stump and put a crown on top of it. I had to watch what I ate for a long time because I didn’t feel confident in that tooth at all. I believed if I ate corn on the cob, an apple or anything hard like that, the tooth would just fall out.”

Blake’s appointment with Dr. Robbins took place almost one year after his father-in-law’s.

“Amazingly, Mr. Reed had the exact same issue as Mr. LaRoche. His upper left central incisor, tooth number 9, had a prior crown and the root of the tooth was fractured,” Dr. Robbins declares. “Sometimes, over time, a tooth that has had a root canal can become brittle, causing the tooth or root to fracture. This is what happened to Mr. Reed. The tooth needed to be extracted, and Mr. Reed wanted to know if he could get an implant like his father-in-law received.

“The treatment for Mr. Reed was exactly the same as we used with Mr. LaRoche. We extracted the damaged tooth and placed a bone graft and a MegaGen implant on the same day. He wore a temporary flipper like Mr. LaRoche, and three months later, we fit Mr. Reed with a crown made by our CEREC CAD/CAM system.

“Mr. Reed and Mr. LaRoche went through the exact same procedure with the exact same timeline on the exact same tooth. It was so coincidental I couldn’t believe it.”

Coincidences aside, Blake was in complete agreement with Dr. Robbins’ recommendations for his treatment.

“She suggested doing the implant, that way I would have the confidence level I wanted and would have my smile back,” Blake states. “Dr. Robbins made the crown herself right there in the office. Her assistant told me she worked quite a long time to get the shade just right, which I really appreciated. We actually went though many tooth shapes and colors to make sure we were 100 percent spot on.

“When she delivered the actual porcelain crown, we chatted for a good 45 minutes. We studied the crown in different mirrors and different lighting. We even walked outside in the sunlight. She was very patient the whole time, doing everything so that I was completely confident in the color.”

Just like Marc, Blake is not only pleased with his implant and crown, but he gives kudos to Dr. Robbins.

“I’m extremely happy with my results. I love my smile, and I smile a lot more now,” Blake enthuses. “I’m totally confident in my tooth. I don’t worry about eating corn on the cob, apples or anything else anymore.

“Dr. Robbins is an outstanding dentist. She’s awesome to work with and very patient. I’ve recommended her to numerous people. I tell them if they ever need an implant, they should go straight to her.”