Ambler Gazette
Sept. 12, 2001
Health and Wellness
Fort Washington Dentists Help Ukrainian Woman After Lifetime Of Inadequate Care
Shevchenko, a resident of the Ukrainian town of Chernovtsy, underwent a revolutionary tooth replacement procedure last month. In a single 4-6 hour visit, the doctors and staff of Pi Dental Center replaced her lower teeth with “Teeth In A DayTM“, Pi Dental Center’s trademarked fixed implant-supported solution, and created a new denture to replace her upper teeth.
When she arrived to visit her daughter in April, Shevchenko made her side trip to Pi Dental Center for a consultation with Drs. Thomas Balshi and Glenn Wolfinger, creators of the “Teeth In A DayTM” solution. Tentative at first, she eventually opted for treatment that would again let her smile and eat with confidence.
It took years for substandard dental care in the Ukraine to ruin Alla Shevchenko’s smile. It took a single visit to a Fort Washington cosmetic and restorative dental practice to put it back.
“My mother had never heard of implants,” said Shevchenko’s daughter, Julia Solomon, a hygienist at Pi Dental Center. “She didn’t understand how the titanium implants fused to the bone to form a bond that is as strong as the original teeth. But she was excited about the prospect of having good teeth again.”
According to Solomon, resident of the former Soviet Union suffer from poor dental health for a number of reasons, including unflouridated water and a lack of high-level dental care in general. Solomon said, for example, that her mother had had a bridge anchored to two of her bottom teeth, but because one of the teeth was decayed, the bridge was virtually unable to function. Anesthesia, universally used in the United States, is a luxury in the former USSR.
During the procedure, Shevchenko was anesthetized while Drs. Balshi and Wolfinger removed her decayed teeth. Eight Nobel Biocare titanium implants were placed in her lower jaw, and a fixed lower prosthesis and an upper denture were quickly created in Pi Dental Center’s in-house laboratory. Four hours later, Shevchenko beamed with a brand-new smile.
“Alla is another example of the remarkable transformations that can occur as a result of Teeth In A Day,” said Dr. Balshi. “Our success with her should give new hope to all of those residents of the former Soviet Union who have suffered for years because of substandard dental care.”
“Teeth In A DayTM” has been recognized as the first procedure that enables patients to enjoy the benefits of custom fixed replacement teeth in a single office visit, rather than following a three month healing period. Pi Dental Center has performed complete “Teeth In A DayTM” procedures in as little as two hours, a time efficiency unmatched by any other dental practice nationwide.
Pi Dental Center specializes in the reconstruction of missing, periodontally hopeless and severely decayed teeth. The practice offers such traditional solutions as crowns, bridges and dentures, but focuses on the Brånemark System of dental implants, a procedure that enables patients once again to enjoy non-removable teeth. The Fort Washington center is a major source of research information about dental implants.
