If you've been told every tooth needs to come out, you're allowed to take a week and ask someone else. One doctor. One patient at a time. In Sacramento.
Implants placed in-house · Out-of-network, fee-for-service · One doctor from consult to follow-up · Over 22 years in Sacramento
It usually goes the same way. You went in for a consultation. You left a few hours later with a 3D scan, a plan, a number, and a date. Everyone was kind. The technology was impressive. And somewhere on the drive home a quieter thought showed up:
Do all of them really have to go?
That thought isn't fear of the dentist. It's the ordinary reaction of a person being asked to make a decision that can't be taken back. For the right patient, full-arch implant treatment can be a very good choice. For someone else, it may remove teeth that could have been kept. Individual results and individual situations vary, and the only way to know which one describes you is to have someone look.
A second opinion is how you find out. It's routine in every other part of medicine. It should be routine here too.
Removing teeth is the one step in dentistry you can't undo. It's worth one more week and one more opinion.
This isn't an accusation about anyone's clinical judgment. It's a point about how different offices are built.
A national implant center is organized to deliver full-arch implants — the equipment, the schedule, the staffing, the marketing. The consultation begins with the question "are you a candidate for this?" That's a fair question, and for many patients the answer is a well-founded yes.
A general dental practice starts somewhere else. Here, the first question is what's actually happening in your mouth, and full-arch implants are one option on a list that also includes keeping teeth, repairing teeth, a partial solution, implants supporting a bridge, or addressing a bite or jaw-joint problem first. Both questions are legitimate. They just don't always lead to the same plan from the same set of X-rays.
That's the entire argument for a second opinion: hear both questions before anything is removed.
No pressure, no sales presentation, and no obligation to change anything. Bring what you already have — your X-rays, your CT scan, your written plan, your quote. If you don't have them, we can take our own images here when they're clinically indicated.
Ask us these. Ask them at every office you consult. The answers are how you compare plans on something other than price.
“All-on-X” describes a full arch of fixed teeth supported by several dental implants — the X stands in for the number, because the right number varies from patient to patient. It’s a well-established approach with a long clinical track record. For someone with failing or missing teeth throughout an arch, many patients find it restores chewing and speech in a way removable options don’t.
Two things are worth understanding before you commit.
If full-arch implants are right for you, one more conversation won't change that — and you'll go into surgery day with fewer unanswered questions. If something about the plan deserves a closer look, this is the appointment where that can surface, while every option is still on the table.
This page is for general education. It is not medical or dental advice and does not establish a doctor-patient relationship. Every case is different and individual results vary. Treatment recommendations can only be made after a clinical examination and appropriate imaging. Premier Dentistry is a general dental practice; Dr. Grivas is a general dentist. Financing is offered through third-party lenders and is subject to credit approval.
