Straight answers from Dr. Wasit.
Beyond prices and timelines — the questions patients really ask once they're in the chair. Honest, unhurried answers from the dentist who will actually do the work.
A dentist overseas said my tooth is cracked, infected and can't be saved — do I pull it and place the implant in one go?
If a tooth genuinely has to come out, it comes out — that part's straightforward. The real question is how best to replace it, and that's where our own 3D CBCT, taken right here, earns its place: it shows me exactly how much bone you have and whether you'll need a graft, so I can read it and plan your whole case with you in the same visit, in about ten minutes. From there it comes down to timing. With deep enough bone and no active infection, I can extract and place the implant in one surgery. If there's infection to clear or the bone's too thin, I stage it — extract and graft first, heal a few months, then place — two surgeries, but onto solid ground, which is how implants last. Here are both paths side by side:
I really want implants, but the surgery frightens me — will I be knocked out, and what if I can't cope in the chair?
You don't need to be put to sleep. Everything from a single tooth up to a full-arch All-on-4 is done under local anesthetic — you stay awake but feel nothing, and go home the same day without the grogginess or risks of general anesthesia. If the worry itself is the hard part, I won't just tell you to relax: beforehand I can give you a mild tablet to settle the nerves, and during surgery we can add nitrous oxide ("laughing gas"), which takes the edge off in a minute and clears just as fast. You're in control the whole time — lift a hand and we pause.
So many implant brands at such different prices — does it really matter which one I get?
Honestly, the titanium itself is often much the same between brands — a well-known implant usually costs more for the same material. What the extra really buys is recognition over time: an implant lives in your jaw for 20–30 years and will likely need a part serviced one day, by which point you could be anywhere in the world. A globally-established system means any dentist can identify it and order the right component; an obscure, cut-price one risks the opposite — nobody recognizes it, nobody can fix it. That's why I use traceable systems like Straumann — not because the metal is special, but because it stays fixable wherever life takes you.
How do you choose a veneer shade that actually looks like me — not a fake, too-white smile?
The blinding, brightest-white "Hollywood" smile was a trend twenty years ago — today it just reads as fake. A natural smile isn't about going as white as possible; it's picking a shade that belongs to your face. My simplest rule: I match the brightness to the whites of your own eyes — teeth brighter than that look false every time, while teeth sitting right at or just below it look healthy and real. From there I read your skin tone, age and lip line, and we try the shade on your own teeth — a mock-up you approve in the mirror — before I prepare anything. The goal is that people think you look well-rested, not that you've "had your teeth done."