My Experience

I have three implants in my mouth: two teeth in my upper jaw, and one on my lower jaw. Initially, I needed my tooth pulled from the back area in my upper jaw because it was infected and there was not enough tooth to save. My options were have a tooth put on wires like a bridge to connect to the tooth next to it, and I would have to take it out at night and clean it. I wanted an implant instead, a replacement, because I thought it would be stronger than a bridge. I went to my oral surgeon. He took an X-ray.

The first implant was in my upper jaw, and the doctor needed to do a sinus lift. The bone in that area is porous, and in order to put a screw into the bone to attach the tooth to, he gave me Novocain to numb the area, cut the gums, and using a tool hammered into the area to compress the bone by millimeters to make sure it was a solid foundation. It’s not painful, it’s just a little jarring because it sort of echoes in your head. It took about 3-4 minutes and he X-rayed it to make sure he had enough space. He also put artificial bone material around it. Then he placed a screw in it. The oral surgeon gave me post procedural instructions and an anti-infective rinse. But there’s no pain, because you have no nerve endings in your bone. There was also no inflammation. We left it there for about 9 months without the tooth. The length of time was just as well because the procedure is expensive and it wasn’t covered by my dental insurance. The time let me recuperate financially. The screw used is titanium and bone grows around it so it is very strong. Over the nine months he examined me several times to make sure the healing was going OK.

Once it was set, my dentist took out the initial screw and didn’t need to use Novocain. It didn’t hurt at all, but the screw fell down my throat. She put in a post to replace the screw. It looks like a screw but is raised at the end to attach the new tooth to. Then she put the new tooth on, we did the fitting with carbon paper.

Don’t ever be afraid of an implant. It is a gift. Once it is in, you never think about it again. It is strong, you can’t tell it is an implant.