Summary
Dr. Nammy Patel shares Tanya’s two-year journey from severe TMJ, dental decay, and airway issues to a natural, healthy, and functional smile.
In this video, Dr. Nammy Patel recounts the transformative case of Tanya, a patient whose extensive dental decline and severe TMJ symptoms—exacerbated by an impaired airway—required a comprehensive, two-year treatment plan. Tanya’s journey began with significant dental damage including chipped teeth and decay, alongside chronic clenching due to an improperly resting tongue. Dr. Patel first focused on correcting her functional airway and bite to alleviate TMJ issues, then proceeded with restorative treatments like veneers and crowns to achieve a natural, long-lasting smile. The dramatic improvements not only enhanced Tanya’s dental aesthetics but also stabilized her airway, reducing her TMJ symptoms and paving the way for a healthier, more confident life.
Dr. Nammy Patel: Today I want to share with you a really fun case, and this is somebody who’s really special to my heart because it’s taken a lot for us to progress to where we were at, and I really just appreciate her trust in me and her confidence in me. And so, I’m really excited to share this story of one of my patients. And I am going to start by just sharing what she said ’cause I just feel like it’s so beautiful and here we go, okay.
This is Tanya. She said, “I discovered Dr. Patel in 2020 while suffering from an unknown symptom, but not COVID related. A functional medicine physician recommended to contact me, and she was the first person that I’ve looked, she’s reached out to now. Her initial consultation was impressive, diagnosed her with her TMJ and was really able to help her get off and into the recovery. We put out some fires, did lots of dental works, fit an orthotic device, did some deep cleanings, but most of it was really getting to her root cause of her oral decline.
Finding the Root Cause of Dental Issues
Now, this was really big because she really has had a ton of dental work in her mouth, but not really noticing. She’s like, “I’m doing everything I can. What’s happening?” She’s really happy because she’s grateful she’s just discovered so much about herself. And if I could show you a picture of Tanya and what her mouth looked like when we first started working together, you would be so shocked in what she looks like right now.
And I’m not even going to show you her face because she doesn’t want me to. But I do want to show you a couple things that we started off with. And it is just dramatic for her to be able to see all the results that we have for her because it really has made a big impact. And I really am excited to have the big impact for her because that’s what makes me excited about what I do.
And so, let me show you a little bit about what she looked like when we first started, and then I can show a couple more things after that. Really happy person, just wanted to find a solution, just really looking at what are some ways that she can do that. And really just, yeah, just really looking at what are some options that she has. So, I’m going to share my screen here first and then we’ll go from where we started to where we are. And like I said, I’m not even showing you her face at all. Okay? So here we go.
Dramatic Reversal of Oral Decline
So, this is Tanya when she first came to me. Wow, right? Look at the amount of dental work that she’s had. She’s had chipped teeth all over the place, darkness on her teeth, acid reflux, massive frostbite, just so much going on with her and not the best things for her. And so, this is Tanya after I’ve worked on her. Look at these beautiful teeth. Can you tell which ones are crowns?
It looks like she’s got natural teeth, super great, supernatural, and I’ve done them in a way that she’s going to be super functional. There’s a little bit of space here and nothing to worry about. We’re going to close that up with some Invisalign, but we really just want to give her that oomph and that break because her TMJ symptoms were much better, just gave her a boost of confidence as we worked forward.
This case was a little bit longer ’cause it took us about two years or so to complete. And it’s mainly because her functional airway needed a little bit of attention. So, we couldn’t just go straight to the veneers or go straight to the crowns, we actually had to fix her clenching, grinding and her bite in the proper shape or form first.
Then, we could fix the teeth because they’ll last longer. So you can see here, her tongue did not rest at the roof of the palate, so it kept falling back. She kept grinding and that’s what gave her her TMJ problems. And the TMJ problems were so severe that she was actually having vertigo and she couldn’t stand up a number of times. And so all the muscles were really tense. She’d gone to her neurologist. She’d gone to so many other physicians and no avail really. But when she’s come to us, we’re able to help her. So, it’s been so delightful, and it’s been so fun to be able to help take care of her.
I wish I could show you her beautiful face, but she doesn’t really want me to do that right now. So I’ll respect her privacy. But I just wanted to show you wonderful, great results of how she looks and how everything looks after her beautiful veneers that we’ve done. And then also functionally, the way she looks after we have fixed her airway, that’s another big win.
Airway Improvement
So, I’m going to go ahead and show you what that looks like right over here. So, see how there’s a big black space there? See how there’s none right over here? So, it’s been really, we’ve got some really good results. So her airway went from an 11 to a 14.4, we were able to elongate her upper arch, but look at that, that’s beautiful. And she’s in proper form and proper function, and so that’s huge. So we’re really, really, really excited to see these things. She’s got nasal breathing, she’s fully stabilized, just really happy. And now we know that everything we’ve done on her is going to last for a lifetime, and that’s what we really want for her.
So, that was really my goal, and I wanted to share that beautiful smile with you because wow, to go from this to this is pretty phenomenal. So, just wanted to share that with you guys and see what’s possible out there for you, and to know that we can look good and we can feel good, and that we can work properly. We don’t have to compromise on anything.
Awesome.
