Implanting a tooth instead of root canal

It hurt quite a bit, but I am glad that I had it done. Just got my titanium abutment bolted in yesterday afternoon, then went to the dentist and got the impression made for the crown construction.

The synthetic bone graft was necessary to fill the hole left by the removal of the tooth that had been killed by an adjacent impacted wisdom tooth that I had removed a few years earlier. Gotta love this technology though, I will have my lost tooth back next month.

I have spoken with quite a few folks who had root canals done, then lost the tooth and got an implant. I went to a local oral surgeon that I know quite well for the graft and implant and to my regular dentist for the crown. I am a well established older adult and can afford to go with specialists that I know and trust to do this type of work. Cheapness is not my primary objective, quality and dependable follow through are.

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I really don't worry that much about prices when I compare apples to apples as I did when finding the oral surgeon to do my implant because I have enough to pay the costs as long as they aren't extravagant as my first one was and the second one as well. I'd rather pay a little more to have any oral surgery done by a 25 year veteran of the implant industry rather than by students trying to earn a degree with their professor watching on. I just think that if the prices were more in line with the type of person I had mine done by there would be more people being able to afford to go to top quality oral surgeons than now do because of their greedy price gouging and trying to fix the market with higher than needed prices as I have found. I'm very pissed off at being told about those much inflated prices by some oral surgeons and they should be told about to everyone so no one uses them until they bring their costs down to the reasonable amounts that I was charged by another professional surgeon in my local area.

 

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I am a top paid professional myself, am aware that there are lots of newbs out there looking to make a living doing my work too, but I have made myself the very best available. They are cheap, but I am the best there is, so I cost more. Choose and lose.

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or win, depending....

Anyways, the surgeon's daughter had a locker right next to my son's all of the way through high school. To him, I am vastly more than a client, I am a neighbor, a fellow scientist/craftsman and his daughter really likes my son......

Additionally, I can 'talk shop' about the technical things involved - right up to the alloys and such involved, so he pays very close attention to what he does with me. And I pay, right now, no problem, no argument, no terms.

If I could not afford this though, I would do something else.

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I would like implants, but I don't think I can even afford to have my current crop of cavities fixed. At the rate I'm going I'll be making my own teeth out of carved deer bone and scavenged copper wire twenty years from now.

 

It would be a very good idea to get the filling done now for if they get really infected you'll be paying a hell of allot more to fix that problem when it happens than fixing the cavities now.

 

I completely agree with Frag here.

 

Having some good pain pills around for emergencies shouldn't be over looked and you didn't even bother to get those prescriptions filled. Everyone to his own.

 

I got the script filled in case the pain was great, but chose not to use the script as the pain did not merit more than a few shots of Captain Morgan before bed.

Opiates make me nauseous, give me cramps and nightmares. I do not care for that aspect of those meds.

I have kept the script though, as there are very rare times when I need such a thing.

The process thus far has not been particularly painful IMHO.

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Most scripts are only valid for 30 days or so , be careful not to let them expire or else you'll never be able to get them.

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Sorry Cosmic, I was not being clear.

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I got the script filled and kept the bottle of codeine pills, but did not take any of it at this time as the level of pain was quite tolerable with less potent pain modifiers. They are still in the medicine cabinet JIC.

 

Just got the crown this afternoon. No pain, but there is some pressure. I am taking a spot of Captain Morgan to dull that down ATM, expect to get used to it quickly.

I like the feel of having a tooth back there again, though the crown cost me $1200 US. The final installation did not take long and did not hurt at all. Further updates later.

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A week later and the pressure has backed off quite a bit. I often forget that I had the tooth replaced now. Initially I kept breaking dental floss between 2 teeth towards the front of my mouth, they were being pushed together by the implant crown. That has gone away as well.

While there was no tooth in the space where I had the bad one removed, all of my other teeth shifted their positions and loosened up a bit. After the bone graft, socket implant, screw/abutment insertion and the crown all of those teeth have to go back to their initial positions, thus the sensation of pressure.

I have been surprised that ALL of the teeth in my mouth seem to have been affected by the loss of just one tooth and that they all shifted so much in just 7 - 8 months. In light of this I would strongly urge any of you that lose a tooth to get it replaced one way or another as quickly as possible.

A friend told me that her teeth were fine until she lost one. Then a few months later the adjacent tooth began to loosen and it also went. Then the upper teeth that faced the missing ones extended down until they too loosened and were removed. Now she has a substantial denture set to try and keep the remaining teeth in place.

 

Good to hear that. I guess its all downhill from now on.

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My abuttment is working well and the bone graft is affixing itself to the jaw bone so another 5 months and my crown will be ready as well.

 

IMHO the worst part (besides the waiting) was the hammering in of the socket into the jaw bone. I know it had to be set and was numbed up well enough, it was just very disconcerting to have the surgeon using a hammer to place it and seeing on the x-ray that he had run it through the bone and into my sinus cavity. I was not expecting that, though in hindsight it does set the socket part in the jaw bone very solidly.

Spit out a bit of blood later too, but he warned me that there would be some from the sinus penetration.

 

Mine was actually screwed in, not hammered like yours. As with yours allot of pressure was brought to bear when he was screwing the post into my jaw but it wasn't that discomforting as I was also given a numbing shot before he began his procedure. I really can't see something, the post, being hammered on because mine was made from titanium and it had a screw type point on it to be used to screw it in, not beat it.

 

I got the bad tooth removed as an impacted wisdom tooth had killed it. When the surgeon removed the bad tooth he did a bone graft. After 4 months I went back, he gave me a couple of serious pain control shots. Then he cut a hole through the new gum tissue over the graft and drilled a hole through the new bone. He then hammered the titanium socket in. He put a screw - in filler piece into the threaded hole in the socket section. After almost 3 months I went back and he removed the filler screw, placed the abutment on top of the socket section and attached the abutment with a counter - sunk titanium screw. They took an x-ray to make sure the socket section had securely bonded to the bone. He glued a temporary plastic cover over that which the dentist removed to fit me for the crown.

The socket section had thread - like rings circling it, but they were not actual threads. I assume the bone was supposed to grow into the insets between the rings to help hold the abutment socket in place. That appeared to be what had happened on the x-ray film.

The crown is smoother than a regular tooth, but otherwise feels normal. I must admit that I enjoy using both sides of my mouth to eat again, as I had been favouring the side with the bad tooth quite a while before it went and for the whole period of this process until I had the crown in place.

 

Mine did the graft and the post at the same time thereby saving a step. He somehow fitted the graft onto the post somehow and screwed the post down with the graft already being held in place then screwing that post into the graft onto the jawbone. They took X rays and it all looks good to me. A different technique but one that he has perfected. Perhaps that's why he charges less than all the others I went to get estimates from.:shrug: