In many areas of life we choose for ourselves: we choose our own profession, work, love, lifestyle, style and posture. We are responsible for our own health. Everyone makes individual decisions about where and how to be treated, and how much to take an interest in a healthy lifestyle and preventive measures. We decide whether to take responsibility for our own life or to demand help and care from those around us, from loved ones and from the state. We arrange the mosaic of our own life ourselves. From tiny details, placed consciously, carefully and rationally – or, on the contrary, thoughtlessly – we create a colourful picture illustrating our present. Every decision has power and its own consequences. Everyday things such as tooth-brushing and hygiene, diet and prevention have a great influence on the health of our teeth. It seems self-evident that dental health is proportional to their constant care – the investment made back in childhood, daily tooth and mouth care, and regular visits to the dentist. Yet almost everyone turns to the dentist for help driven by tooth pain. When teeth are lost, not only an aesthetic and chewing problem arises but also a phonetic one – it becomes hard to speak and one starts to lisp. The most effective way to solve these problems is to restore, that is to fit prosthetics for, the lost teeth. Before beginning dental prosthetics, quite a lengthy preparation is needed. At this stage it's decided, taking into account medical and financial possibilities, which treatment plan to choose. Strange as it may seem, the more expensive option is to preserve and treat the teeth, clean out the tissues damaged by decay, treat the canals, fit temporary dental crowns and raise a lowered bite – and only then move on to the PROSTHETICS stage.

 What should an older, senior-age person do? Answered by orthopaedist and doctor of medical sciences Kęstutis Sveikata, who works at AND KLINIKA: First of all, don't begrudge money for your health; realise that new teeth will restore life's comfort – the ability to chew, smile and taste various flavours. For those who've reached retirement age and have had the patience to wait their turn for reimbursement, an amount reimbursed by the National Health Insurance Fund helps pay for better future teeth. COMBINED PROSTHETICS. A denture on two or four implants. How to choose? Unfortunately, the choice is most often the solving of a financial puzzle. It's easy to work with patients who, having found a reliable clinic or doctor, trust and say: “You do for me whatever technology is best in the world and what's best for my health.” When there's no such statement, the doctor is obliged to guess – what compromise to offer. Then a dialogue takes place:

• A denture won't hold for you, because the jaw is very lowered.
• But, doctor, I don't have money. You know what the old-age pensions are like?
• But if we clipped the denture onto even two implants – it would already be a compromise construction.

A COMPROMISE DENTURE. In that case the very construction of the denture, its making and adjustment – the cost of this work – is partly covered by the reimbursement amount allocated by the National Health Insurance Fund, and the patient is left to pay for two implants and their placement. Once the implantation procedure is done and the implants are screwed in during it, a temporary denture is made, still without the ability to clip on, until the implants take. A person who had the chance to see what awaited them in the future – a lifetime of struggling with a denture that won't hold – lights up when, once the implants have taken, the denture is clipped via connecting parts onto the little implants screwed into the jaw.

A MORE PERFECT DENTURE PROSTHESIS ON 4 IMPLANTS. If the patient agrees to the prosthetics amount – four implants are far better than two. Sometimes five implants are needed, and that again depends on many details – the thickness of the jawbone, the nerves running alongside. It matters where the implants are screwed in – sometimes two implants are placed symmetrically on each side of the jaw, and sometimes, because of the peculiarities of the bone, symmetrical placement isn't possible. So a fifth implant may be needed in the middle, or an arrangement such that one side has two implants and the other three. This depends not on the wishes of the implanting doctor but on the overall treatment plan drawn up, which the prosthetic doctor and dental technician later work with and follow. Implanting and prosthetic doctors improve their skills throughout their lives and exchange knowledge and experience – on how to bring people as much happiness and joy as possible by restoring their ability to live fully – to smile and eat. A PERFECT HYBRID PROSTHESIS ON FOUR IMPLANTS. When it's precisely determined how many implants will be needed in the specific case, and agreement is reached with the patient on which treatment and prosthetics plan will be followed, all the stages are gone through in turn: implantation, prosthetics, making the hybrid, fitting. Those who resolve to have a hybrid prosthesis are given the best gift for their patience – the feeling of non-removable teeth in the mouth.