Natural Dental

03/19/2026

We need to be honest—dental implants are not the solution to every dental issue.

We’ve been seeing an uptick in implant failures coming through our doors lately, and it’s alarming. The truth is this: a restored natural tooth is almost always better than an implant.

Arizona's Family Investigates looked into the costly procedure of getting dental implants and why millions of reported problems went unnoticed.

02/03/2026

Nickie came to us wanting to improve her smile. She had already visited a few other offices—one recommended pulling all of her teeth and replacing them with implants, while another suggested full crowns and veneers.

I didn’t like either plan.

Crowns and veneers didn’t make sense. Her spacing was too wide, which would have meant either oversized teeth or unnaturally narrow teeth, squeezed together, to fill the gaps.

As for implants, she’s simply too young for a full-mouth implant case. To us, implants are really a last-resort treatment option. Implants don’t last forever, and she would almost certainly face complications down the road. More importantly, if and when the implants fail, she could either:

1) be left with insufficient bone for future implants or dentures, or

2) need a very expensive and complex procedure to save her smile.

Our name is Natural Dental, and our goal is exactly that—to save as many natural teeth as possible.

I told Nickie that if she chose to do the case with me, it would take longer, but we could preserve her natural teeth and achieve a much better long-term prognosis. She trusted us with her care.

We started with a deep cleaning to stabilize her gum health. Then she completed Invisalign treatment to close the gaps and improve her upper and lower bite. After a year, we placed a bridge to replace her one missing tooth.

The results are excellent. Her life has truly changed—she’s happier, more confident, and healthier.

Thank you, Nickie, for trusting us with your oral health.

11/06/2025

We’re so lucky to have patients who trust us. Meet Valerie—even after moving to Missouri, she still travels back to see us for her dental care. 🦷 ✨

03/07/2025

The other day, I saw a delightful 97-year-old patient. I love talking to our elderly patients because there is so much to learn from them.
While I was repairing her partial denture, I asked, "So what's the secret to your longevity?"
She replied, "I'm not on any special diet, but I grew up on a farm and did a lot of physical labor, so I think that's the trick.
And even though I was a girl, I was the oldest, and my brother had a disability, so my father asked me to do everything. I fed the animals, cleaned the barn, and milked the cows. I even stacked hay! At school, the boys would ask, 'Cel, why are you so strong?' and I’d tell them, 'Because I used to stack hay! Do you know how to stack hay?'"
I rolled my chair over so we were face-to-face and said, "I’ve stacked hay before."
"Really?" she said, sounding a little surprised.
"Yeah. One time, my wife couldn’t hear me, so I said, 'Hey, hey, hey!' See? I stacked three 'hey's.'"
She burst out laughing.
The truth is, dentistry can be complex, but a bit of empathy, compassion, and a dad joke can make it feel simple.

06/22/2023

We love it when our patients love their smiles.

06/19/2023

Happy Father's Day! Today is a special day to celebrate and honor all the amazing dads out there. And guess what? This is Dr. Chue's first Father's Day. His son, Chase, was born on 4/9/2023!

06/15/2023

"I hate my smile because of these cavities."

A young patient presents with cavities on her upper front teeth. She considered veneers to improve her smile, but due to her age and the structural integrity of her teeth, we advised against it. Instead, we recommended simple fillings, and it worked! The results were excellent. She's happy with her new smile and the money that she saved.

12/30/2022

Parents forget to take care of their needs because they are used to putting others before themselves. This father has been living with missing front teeth for a long time because he was putting his kids first. He goes around not smiling, not talking much, and keeps his lips closed. But this year, he got promoted to a supervisor position and he wants to be more confident when speaking.

He had consultations from a few places but they all wanted to pull out his teeth for dentures or implants. The dentures would be the most affordable but it means losing taste and function, and he didn't want that. Implants sound nice but it'll cost nearly $40,000 and he couldn't afford that. Someone told him about Natural Dental so he came to us for help.

It was a difficult case but not impossible. We were able to save all of his strong teeth, therefore his chewing ability never changed. We made him a partial denture that gave him a sense of dignity and confidence, and one that fits his financial situation.

At the follow-up appointment, we asked him, "How does your wife like your new smile?"
He replied, "My wife loves it, but do you know what actually matters more to me? How my children feel about me. They love my new teeth and my new smile. They are happy for me, and then they are happy for themselves. I didn't think their father's appearance would affect them so much, emotionally. But it does. I'm glad I had this done."

That's our story to close 2022. We wish you all a blessed year to come in 2023.

12/14/2022

He said, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth."

12/01/2022

Providing dental care with transparency

Sometimes, it's hard to convince patients that they need a filling when they don't feel discomfort. It's even harder when there isn't an obvious hole in their tooth.
Here is an example of a tooth with a gray spot under the enamel (no obvious cavitation), but look what's under: a cavity. It's actually large enough that in 1-2 years, this patient would have needed a root canal.

So how do we make our patients feel confident that the procedures we recommend are truly necessary? We do it through patient education and an intraoral camera.

05/23/2022

Don't chew on ice!

These are teeth from the same patient. He likes to chew ice.

Notice how his teeth have clean fractures -- no decay, no fillings. The outer enamel sheared off from the cold and hardness of the ice, leaving the underlying layer and sharp tooth structure. We see this on multiple teeth so we know that it's something he does habitually. (If it's only one tooth, then it could be a one time incident, like accidently biting into a seed).

So, don't chew on ice.