What to Expect When Multiple Teeth Need Work

“I know I need a lot of work done, but I don’t know where to start.”

We hear this regularly at Sunny Dental Buderim. A patient arrives who has been managing as best they could — avoiding certain foods, getting used to gaps, quietly hoping nothing gets worse — and they’ve reached the point where it’s time to actually deal with it.

The problem isn’t just the dental work itself. It’s the overwhelm of not knowing where to start, what order things happen in, how many appointments are involved, how much it’s going to cost, and whether the whole experience is going to be as unpleasant as they’re imagining.

This post answers those questions honestly. Our goal is to make the unknown known — because in almost every case, the reality of treatment is more manageable than the anticipation of it.

You Don’t Have to Do Everything at Once

This is worth saying upfront: comprehensive dental treatment is almost always delivered in phases.

Not just for clinical reasons (though there are plenty of those), but because it’s more manageable — financially, physically, and emotionally — to tackle a complex situation in stages rather than all at once.

A treatment plan with 12 items on it is not 12 things that all happen in the next month. It’s a roadmap with distinct phases, each with clear goals, spread over months or sometimes a couple of years. You know what’s happening at each step. You have time to recover between phases. And you can make decisions about subsequent phases with the information and experience of earlier phases behind you.

The Starting Point: A Proper Assessment

Before any treatment begins, we need a complete picture of your current situation. This isn’t a standard check-up — for complex cases, it’s a dedicated assessment appointment that takes 60 to 90 minutes and involves:

Full-mouth X-rays
Periodontal charting (measuring gum health around every tooth)
Photographs
Digital scans or study models
A detailed conversation about your history, priorities, and concerns

From this assessment, Dr Louis George or Dr Jeremy Collins develops a written treatment plan with all proposed treatments, costs by phase, and an estimated timeline. You take this home, review it, and come back with questions before committing to anything.

For more detail on this process, see our post: How We Plan a Complex Treatment: From First Visit to Final Result.

How Treatment Is Sequenced

The order in which dental treatment happens isn’t arbitrary. Clinical logic determines the sequence — and getting it right matters.

Phase 1: Foundation

Before any crown, implant, or significant restoration is placed, the foundation needs to be stable.

This means:

Gum disease is treated first. If there is active periodontitis, the infection and inflammation need to be resolved before any restorative work begins. Restorations placed in an infected environment fail prematurely. Gum treatment — usually involving deep cleaning (scaling and root planing), and sometimes minor surgery — comes before everything else.

Teeth that can’t be saved are extracted. Identifying which teeth should be saved and which are better removed is a crucial part of the planning process. Teeth that are beyond reasonable restoration, or that would require disproportionate treatment cost relative to their prognosis, are better extracted. This may feel like a loss — and it is — but it’s the foundation for doing something better.

Bone grafting, where needed. When teeth have been missing for some time or when an extraction leaves insufficient bone for a future implant, bone grafting builds back what’s needed. Grafts need time to heal — several months — before implants can be placed into the grafted area. This is often the step that makes a complex treatment plan long: the biology simply takes the time it takes.

Active decay and infections are treated. Ongoing decay needs to be stopped, and any dental infections resolved, before moving to the restorative phase.

Phase 2: Structure

Once the foundation is stable and healed, the structural work begins.

This is where implants are placed (if grafting has healed), major crowns and bridges are completed, and the bite is carefully rebuilt. This is often the most involved phase, requiring multiple appointments over several months.

For patients receiving multiple implants, the healing period (osseointegration, where the implant fuses to the bone) takes three to six months per implant site before the crown can be attached. This is biology — it can’t be accelerated.

Phase 3: Finalisation

The final phase ties everything together. Final crown placement, aesthetic finishing on front teeth, bite review and adjustment, and a comprehensive check of how everything works as a system.

This is also when the maintenance plan is established — how often we want to see you, any specific cleaning protocols for your restorations, and what to watch for.

Managing the Number of Appointments

One of the most common concerns we hear is about the sheer number of appointments involved in complex treatment.

There are things that help with this:

Longer appointments. Rather than many short appointments, we try to schedule longer sessions that accomplish more in each visit. A two-hour appointment that completes several things is often preferable to four 30-minute ones.

Sedation dentistry. For patients who experience significant anxiety, or who simply find long dental appointments difficult, sedation dentistry can be transformative. IV sedation in particular allows procedures that would normally take multiple appointments to be completed in one longer session. Our Practice Manager Dwi George is a Registered Nurse — her clinical background is what allows us to offer this level of sedation safely.

Clear scheduling. At the start of each phase, we give you a schedule of upcoming appointments so you can plan around them. There are no surprise calls asking you to come in urgently — the plan is set and you know what’s coming.

Managing the Cost

Complex treatment represents a genuine financial commitment. We don’t minimise that.

What helps:

Phased costs. Because treatment happens in phases, the costs are spread over the timeline of treatment — often 12 to 24 months. Phase 1 costs are paid when Phase 1 occurs, not upfront.

Prioritised treatment. Not everything on a treatment plan is equally urgent. We’re clear about what needs to happen first for health and structural reasons, versus what can be deferred without adverse consequences. This lets you make informed decisions about pacing.

Health fund. Most private health funds with extras cover contribute to crowns, implants (in some policies), and other restorations. The coverage varies significantly between funds and levels — we can provide a full quote so you can check your entitlements before committing.

DVA entitlements. Many of our patients in Buderim and across the Sunshine Coast — from Nambour to Palmwoods — are veterans or partners of veterans. DVA Gold Card holders have significant dental entitlements. Dr Louis and Dr Jeremy, both ex-military themselves, are experienced with the DVA system and can help you understand what’s covered.

Managing Dental Anxiety

It would be a disservice to write about complex dental treatment without addressing anxiety directly.

Dental anxiety is common. It’s more common in older patients — partly because earlier dental experiences were, simply put, more unpleasant. Dentistry has improved enormously in the past 30-40 years, but those memories don’t update automatically.

If anxiety has been part of why you’ve delayed treatment, that’s important information for us. Not something to feel embarrassed about — just something we need to know so we can manage your appointments appropriately.

Options we offer:

Appointments designed around you. Longer appointments so nothing feels rushed. The ability to take breaks. Clear communication about what’s happening before we do it. These sound simple, but they make a significant difference.

Oral sedation. A tablet taken before the appointment produces a relaxed, drowsy state. You remain conscious and can respond to us, but you’re much less aware of what’s happening and considerably less concerned about it.

IV sedation. For patients with significant anxiety or for lengthy procedures, IV sedation produces a “twilight” state — you’re conscious and breathing independently, but you have minimal awareness of the procedure and often no memory of it afterwards. This is the sedation option that makes the largest difference for genuinely anxious patients, and it’s available at Sunny Dental because of Dwi George’s nursing background.

Many patients who thought they couldn’t tolerate comprehensive dental treatment have completed full rehabilitation under sedation. It’s not avoidance — it’s a clinical tool that makes treatment possible.

What Patients Commonly Find Surprising

Based on the patients we’ve treated in Buderim and across the Sunshine Coast:

The wait is harder than the treatment. Once treatment is underway and there’s a clear plan, most patients find the process far less stressful than the period of knowing things need doing but not knowing what.

Recovery between appointments is usually quick. Most dental procedures, even larger ones, involve a few days of mild discomfort rather than weeks of pain. The anticipation of what recovery will feel like is often worse than the reality.

The results are motivating. As treatment progresses and things improve — functionally and aesthetically — most patients find their motivation to continue increases rather than decreases. Completing Phase 1 and experiencing the improvement in gum health makes Phase 2 feel less daunting.

You’re in control. At no point are you locked into the next phase. If something comes up — financially, medically, or personally — we can pause and resume. The plan adapts to your life.

Part of the Full Mouth Rehabilitation Series

This post is part of our hub guide: Full Mouth Rehabilitation: A Complete Guide. That guide covers the full scope of comprehensive dental rehabilitation — what it involves, what the treatments are, and what to expect from start to finish.