All-on-4® Dental Implants Bruising Went Viral. Here's What Actually Happened.

First day at work, what do you think? Am I looking pretty fly? Look at the twins. Right? And now I've got the yellowing going on, so that says we're we're in the healing phase. I'm a nurse here. I wouldn't lie to you. If I gotta look like I'm over fifty because of this dental surgery, then this is not the aesthetic I was going for. If this changes the way I look for like ever, I feel like I've got dog jowls. Laurie, you went viral, almost five million views, documenting your bruising after getting full mouth dental implants at Nuvia. And I know a lot of people were like, yeah, I do not want that to happen to me. So, we're going to dive in to what really happened and how you feel about your teeth now. But first things first, let's see what you look like just after a few months of recovery. Let's get in closer. Here, let me pull up Do like them? Wow. They're beautiful. They're they're amazing. Yeah. You would you would never think that a few months ago, you had so much bruising going on, you know. Oh, my face. I'm good here. Let's Let's go. Smelling's gone. I got a sunburn. Sorry. Yeah. Always can use a little a little blushing in the summertime. Right? Yeah. Yeah. Well, let's rewind to where it all started, was surgery day. Your surgery was actually a little bit different than most people's because you actually walked in with implants already on because you had snap on dentures. So tell me kind of what did they do during surgery? What did that look like? You go to sleep. And so, it's very safe. I felt confident in in the team that was around me. They actually remove any implants that you already have. They shave down your your bone a little bit if you if they can to make more room in your mouth for new teeth. And then the next thing I knew, I was being woke up, and they were handing me ice packs. And it was really simple. The surgery part itself then wasn't painful because you were asleep, right? Did you feel anything? Yeah, there was was no pain even the first day when I went Yeah, you're numbed up for a while. So first day is easy. Before we kind of talk about when the bruising started to settle in, I'm curious, whenever you first got your teeth placed, you know, you came in after surgery the next day, to get them in. Did you like the way they looked at first? Like, what was your initial thoughts of your smile? I got permanent teeth in twenty four hours. I did it. Yes. But the swelling had started right after that appointment. I think my first day, there was no there was no real swelling. Just a little bit of inflammation as to be expected. It was after I got my permanent teeth in that my own immune system was like, I don't think I like this and started having a reaction, and I started swelling up a little bit. That's when the bruising kinda started. And my mouth was so swollen that first day. I had to go because I couldn't see them. I couldn't see my teeth. I had to, like it was swollen, really swollen that first day. I'm not gonna lie. But, yeah, I was happy to have teeth. They looked great. And in twenty four hours, might I add? That's pretty incredible. In twenty four hours, yes. As promised, as promised. Well, you continue to document your first few days, on TikTok. As the bruising began to kind of amp up, what kind of, like, sensations were you feeling at the time? You know, what was the pain like? Tell us more about how it felt. It it wasn't painful. If you wanna talk about what when I'm not gonna lie to you and say there was no pain. Day one, minimal pain. It's controlled. You're numb. Day two, that's when, you know, you can feel like you've had something done. You wanna keep your ice packs on your face, keep in a sitting up position. You don't wanna lay down and have even though you're uncomfortable, don't want to lay down and have the the pooling start and inflammation. It was uncomfortable for a couple of days. But the bruising was never a a physical pain issue. It wasn't hurting me Wow. At all. That's so interesting. Well, I do wanna take a look at the TikTok TikTok that did go viral and kind of react to kind of react to it. So let's let's take a quick look really fast. First day at work, what do you think? Am I looking pretty fly? Look at the twins. Right? And now I've got the yellowing going on, so that says we're we're in the healing phase. I'm a nurse here. I wouldn't lie to you. It's more yellow now than it was this morning. So I have to ask, what does it feel like looking back at that clip? Like, what what thoughts are kinda going on? I I I had started a new job, and it was my first day. I wasn't expecting to I thought a week was gonna be fine. I wasn't expecting to go to work, but I was all black and blue. I was afraid I was gonna be embarrassed and humiliated. At the time, I was I had agreed to work as a drug and alcohol rehabilitation nurse for a little while. And it actually turned out really well. Wow. Turned out to be like a benefit for my patients. A lot of people who do drugs and alcohol end up with bad teeth. And I'm sorry to have to throw this in there, but your teeth, you end up with no teeth, missing teeth. People who've done meth or even alcohol can can cause tooth damage. And when they asked me, oh my gosh, what happened to your face and everything? And I showed them my new permanent teeth. They were calling me a warrior. I was telling them, you know what? There's there's life after You're getting clean right now. You're gonna focus on that. And then when you get everything together, you're gonna go you're gonna get your smile too. And it was a lot of them saw it as, like, hope. Is it worth it? Absolutely. A hundred percent. It's given a lot of my patients hope. I didn't do this to to show anybody anything, but it's turned into something more. I I could even cry thinking about some of my patients. They were so sweet and so accepting, and it was a great community. And they loved my teeth, and they felt like they had a future. So Nuvia did more than just help me. You helped dozens of people in recovery. So That's honestly so incredible. The fact that you were going into work, oh my goodness, what what are people gonna say? There's so much bruising happening, like but it end up like being like, hey. It started a conversation of like, hey. This is actually giving others hope to like what you could do in the future. That is beautiful. Like, who would have thought that? Right? Yeah. Yeah. It was pretty awesome. I I told them all that they are permanent teeth and told them about my me going through with dentures and and everything. So, I mean, there's there's hope. There's hope. Well, I'm also very curious, you know, when this bruising is happening or even at its worst, when or did you ever have a moment where you were like, oh my goodness, like, what did I do here? Is this gonna be permanent? Is this gonna change the way I look? Like, what kind of fears did you have maybe at this time? My biggest fear honestly was, my own vanity. I got longer my I was longer in the lip right here after I got my dentures, my snap in snaps out. Right? And Nuvia did the best they could to, like, help lift this up. But with my age and everything, I just feel like I was long long in the what do you call this? Lip. I don't even I was long in the lip. And, you know, you go in with this imaginary vision of the way it's gonna look, and it's gonna roll back the clock twenty years. And did it? No. So it was my own my own thought. You know, I'm not gonna go in at fifty seven years old, get teeth, and then come back looking like I'm thirty. That's that's not the way life works. Gotcha. So I was disappointed there for a minute. I'm not gonna lie, but there's really been nothing negative. Nothing negative. I feel good about myself. I'm eating better. Yeah. Mean, can imagine also, getting a whole new set of teeth. It's gonna take some adjusting. Right? I mean, I don't think immediately it's gonna be like, alright. Cool. We're it looks great. We're good. Like, there's gonna be some sort of adjustment there. There was a sign that I might have an infection starting. So they I called them up, and they were like, oh, well, we're gonna put you on antibiotics right away. I've been fine ever since. Knocked it out right So if you're getting your Nuvia, you're feeling any type of way, they want you to call. They want you to keep in touch. Don't sit there and go, oh, I don't wanna bother anybody. No. Call. Call. And and they've got a solution. They've been I don't think they there's a thing that you can come up with that they don't have a solution for. I love Nubia. I'm really happy about it. Amazing. Well, I mean, here's the thing, right? When you get something done, you're making an investment when you're getting these teeth, right? So you want to make sure you're taking care of them so you can protect them and hopefully have them the rest of your life. And I know a lot of people in the comments of your viral video were asking like, hey, what's the cost? What's the cost? And actually, below this video, if you guys are watching and curious, hey, what could this cost me? There's a dental implant cost guide that we put together, that they could definitely check out. But, Laurie, I'm also curious, did they prescribe you pain medicine at first too, like right after surgery? There's a pain killer you can use. There's a couple of days where you're gonna be like, oh lord, this pain killer, thank thank the lord because you just had something done to your mouth. You know? Like Right. It's a surgery. It's a thing. Having that pain killer was was vital and the ice packs. The ice packs, you guys have these ice packs. Get one empty and one full on your way home. One full ice pack, you keep it on. They've got you wrapped. It wraps around your face. Then have one empty at home so you can have one full and then just switch out already, you know, like in the in the freezer. Fill one up for, like, later when this one gets a little wet. You can just swap them out. Have your husband refill your ice packs for you. It's on your face. I love it. Well, whenever you were bruising, did you ever, like, reach out to Nuvia too about that? And were you ever, hey, what is going on? Is this normal? Or did you have concerns there? Or what was your worried about it. Honestly, I knew it was my body's own reaction to the trauma. Going through nursing school, you learn the different levels of bruising, what happens when, why. If you cut your finger the way your body immediately starts sending out little repair units, that's why it turn it turns red or it it's it weeps. You know, if you cut your finger, there's there's an instantaneous thing that happens with your body to repair any trauma. So my body perceived more trauma, I think, in places. There there was no trauma. I had a little bit of an overreaction. Not everybody's gonna have that. But it's just visual. It didn't cause me more pain. It wasn't like I got I got beat up or anything. I didn't feel that way. That video didn't come across the way it was intended. I was making light of my face and my bruises and a little bit of my embarrassment that I had to start my job that way with the bruises on my face. And I just was putting it out for the for the few people that are on every one of my videos that they carve there for all of my stuff that I post all my silly stuff. And I just thought it would be like, look at my face. And then people were like, woah, and it it really took off. And some people thought, you know, I'm I'm never gonna do that, but you're really selling yourself short because this is the best thing I've ever done. This this is life changing. It's changing the way I feel about myself, changing the way I eat. I'm I'm sure it's gonna impact my health if I don't eat too many caramel apples. Yes. We can't wait for that four months so you can start eating those. Yeah. It's taken away an edge of my anxiety even. Like I I've got pretty bad anxiety or had and I feel like I I feel better than I have in thirty years, honestly. I I just feel like I feel on the inside like I'm twenty six, so I identify as a twenty six year old. This is not Yes. I'm fifty seven. Fifty seven on the outside, but on the inside, I'm twenty six. I just want you to know that. I love it. Well, what I find super interesting too is you did mention on one of your TikToks too that when you got your snap in dentures, like your implants for that, you kind of had a similar reaction. Right? So When I got my dentures in, my face swelled up and I had an overreaction to the surgery as well there. Why do you think you do bruise as badly as you do? Like, do you have any idea? My immune system is so dramatic. Trauma. It's just the way my immune system reacted to to having you know, when I had all my teeth pulled, I don't remember how many teeth they pulled to get my snap indentures. It was it was similar. I had bruising and swelling, looked like somebody beat me up with a stick or like I got in a car accident or something really horrible happened to me. And it's just the way my overreactive immune system just thought they needed to send out extra support, I suppose. They're just being extra protective. Yeah. Extra yeah. I'm very dramatic. Very dramatic. Well, those out there also might be wondering, especially in the comments, you know, why does this happen to some people versus others? And here's actually what one of the Nuvia doctors said. That healing period can look very different for different patients. It is all dependent upon the medical history, the healing type, the body type, speaking how prone people are to bruising or swelling. I would say most of my patients come in the next day, even a few days later if they need to, with very minor swelling, very minor bruising, perhaps something around the corners of their mouth, perhaps something around this area. But patients who have, let's say, a history of blood thinner use, even if we stop the blood thinner before and or after surgery, of course, with the permission of their primary care provider, can experience much more intense bruising. Dark bruising all throughout their face and then as with any bruising, they'll start to note as it heals, it kind of starts traveling down their neck, sometimes even onto their chest as the body filters through this old blood through the lymphatic system. What do you think about that? I'm curious. I actually I that's she's spot on. Like, mine went down all the way. I thought, like, I've spent all the way down to my xiphoid process. I'm gonna be like, it was it was onto my chest. It was my eyes, my everything. And, part of it oh, I should mention that because of my difficulties with eating for over the years, I became a type two diabetic. It's easy to eat junk food, pasta. You know, you have less available to you, especially when you think your dentures are gonna break every five minutes, which mine were. My dentures would snap in half constantly. I'd be out on a date with my husband, and I'm eating a steak, and I have to spit my broken dentures out in my hand. That was the snap in ones. I wanna be clear that that's I don't have that problem at all with Nubia. As a matter of fact, today, I'm a controlled diabetic. So once you get diabetes, once you get type two diabetes, you are a type two diabetic forever. And if you get your a one c under control, then you are a controlled diabetic. So I am today a controlled diabetic, I'm looking forward to all the nice, wonderful healthy things that that I'm gonna be able to to eat and enjoy and fun anniversaries. I'm gonna spend with my husband at fancy restaurants without having to worry. I'm gonna have to be embarrassed or spend a shift with no teeth in my mouth in front of patients. I can only imagine because those things don't come out. Right? Those things never. No. I if I if you guys have to have a reason to take them out, which I I don't know of one, but I I would have to go in and but no. They're they're in. And as long as you take care of yourself, brush your teeth, rinse, use your dental pick, I I wouldn't foresee any reason to to have to take your teeth out. I'm curious too. When did, you know, the the bruising and the discomfort, even the swelling, when did all that start to kind of, ease down for you? Oh, gosh. By, by day four or five, the the it was minimal. I was on, ibuprofen and Tylenol, then at that point, if you rotate Tylenol and ibuprofen, you know, every few hours, you can kind of keep it on board and do your liver a favor. So you said the pain, like discomfort itself, started kind of easing off day four or five. About the bruising? Because obviously the bruising, there was a lot happening, right? So, when did that fade away? Like, when did you start looking normal? For me, it was it was longer than most people, I think, would maybe it's because of the diabetes, could more than likely be because of that. Like I said, it's just visual anyway. And I had black and blue here and there for several weeks, probably I would say into my fourth week, Even after my two week checkup, they I walked in and they were shocked that my face still looked it looked similar to the the big viral video even after two weeks. But that's just my own experience. That's not gonna be everybody's experience and don't let what my face look like prevent you from changing your life. I I I can't clarify that enough to people who saw that video and thought, oh my god, I'm never getting implants. You need to reevaluate that thought and it you know, would you give up your kids having to do that again? That's you know, people have four or five kids, so it's worth it to go through labor and delivery. Right? And it wasn't anywhere near that. No. It's a great way to look at it though. Yeah. I mean, you change your life. You change your life. What would your what would your personality be if you had never had to get dentures, or never had gaps or rotten teeth or missing molars and or like a you know, when you get to the point that you want to get permanent teeth in your mouth, there's a reason why you're doing that. What would your personality have been like had you never had to get to where you are to have this thought, I need dentures, you know? What would your personality have developed into? How outgoing? How confident? You know, what what job can you reach? You really gotta put it in perspective that this is gonna be the closest thing to to what you would have had had you never had bad teeth in the first place. And your true personality is gonna shine through. It's you reach for the stars, man. Absolutely. Nubia is like reaching for the stars. What are the biggest changes that you've seen or noticed in yourself since getting this done? Confidence. That's my my biggest thing is I feel more outgoing. I feel more confident. I'm I'm not afraid to smile. I feel, you know what? I hadn't really thought of it until just now, but I can't remember the last time that I felt like people thought I was mean. Wow. You know, like before, when I had my teeth, I I didn't wanna smile as much. My smile was more like like that, you know, and not your genuine open mouth or I would put my hand up, you know, to cover you my mouth. And I I guess I haven't thought about it, but I I don't feel self conscious. I don't feel that social anxiety anymore. Feel like I'm the open person that I would have been if I never had to worry about, oh, what what do they think of my my mouth? What do they think of me? That insecurity is just gone. I'm just a I'm just a person doing whatever. I don't care. It sounds like peace of mind, you know? Yes. It's it's not just your metabolic health that you need teeth for. It's for your own personal well-being and your sanity. And I I feel I feel good. That's amazing. It's helping my anxiety too. It So any amount of money that that it's costing me to to have these. It I I'm worth that. I'm worth that. And I think I'll live longer because of it. Because when you change your outlook in life and you change how you eat and you change how you feel, positivity is longevity. I'm just saying. Well, someone who's watching right now and maybe saw your bruising videos and thought, well, was it worth going through all that? What would you say? A hundred percent. A hundred percent. I would have taken twenty seven more bruises. Yeah. My whole face could have been black and blue for six months. Would be worth I if I was black and blue still today, this is it's worth it because I know what's on the other side. And I I know I feel confident and happy, and I'm back in cardiology where I belong. I love cardiology. Well, says a whole lot. It says a whole lot. And it's only, you know, a few months in. Right? So there's much more things for you to discover about Getting this new smile. So I hopefully, down the line, we can pop on another podcast and talk more about this. Anytime. Anytime at all. Well, for those watching out there and curious, you know, what could this cost me? What does this look like? Make sure to download that dental implant cost guide I mentioned earlier. Let's take a look at that. See how people have made it possible for them. But Lori, thank you so much again for being on this podcast with me today. I think it's great to get insight to, hey, even though, you know, it might have looked pretty bad, it was worth going through in the end. So I appreciate hundred percent. A hundred percent. Yeah. Do it. And you know what? Your first appointment when you go down there, I think it's free. You're gonna go in there. They're gonna tell you whether you're a candidate. They're gonna take some pictures. They're gonna take some x rays, and they're gonna tell you what it would cost you. They're gonna give you the cost breakdown. There's no obligation to go down there and just see, and you get an overall idea of what Nuvia can do for you. I love the way I feel and I want everybody to feel this way too. So go get the free go get the free exam. That it's a it's a starting point. I didn't expect to walk out a week after my first appointment. That wasn't my plan. It was just to go see. See what it was about. And a week later, I had teeth. That's how fast it was. A week. It was it was a week. I went in. I was like, yeah, I'm gonna go. I'm gonna I'm just gonna go see what it costs. And then a week later right? Yeah. Treat yourself. Crazy how fast it can happen. It's so crazy. Yeah. Absolutely. Treat yourself. I love that. Treat yourself. Awesome. Well, yeah. There's also a sixty second quiz that you can take. I'll put it next to that cost guide in the description where you can find out if you could be a candidate. And then from there, go in for your consultation. Talk to them about what's possible. That's what Lori did and here here she is now. So No obligation. Just go in, check it out. If it's not for you, leave.