My Implant Experience

helimachoptor

So, got a front tooth knocked out 13 years ago playing football. Has one of the other incisors built up with composite material and moved across. After a few years it discoloured this was the end result.



Went to a dentist and came up with a treatment plan, a short course of braces, implant and 3 crowns. Started off with the braces...


Had the braces on for about 4-5 months. Had the implant surgery then. Only painful part was getting injection into the palate Got a retainer then with a false tooth and had that in for about 3 months (no pics of that)

After the retainer I went back to the dentist got my gum opened up again, and again with the palate injection!!!
Got a bridge put in then for a few weeks while the gum healed up some more. Got moulds etc made for crowns and implant.

Pretty much taken in the car after being in the chair for an hour or so





Then finally got the implant and crowns placed, results below




After getting the work done, i'm really kicking myself for not getting it done years ago. I was never one to really smile in photos. The implant experience was pain free, I had some light bleeding the night of the procedure (to be expected as my head was mashed into the pillow) Didnt need pain killers or anything.

Any questions just post and i'll do my best to answer them!

deniseryan

HOW MUCH DID IT COST, DID YOU GET IT DONE IN DUBLIN?

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Caps means shouting....

Looks good, thanks for the post very informative.

helimachoptor

Pm sent with details.

deniseryan

Robert Kind Joiner wrote: »

Caps means shouting....

Looks good, thanks for the post very informative.

apologies, new to this and i wasnt watching the keyboard

Kurumba

Hi there, any chance you could PM me with the details of where you got it done please? Thanks

georgieporgy

nice job, but I think you should have gone to Budapest. Not only would you have had a nice holiday , you could have had a shave thrown in

MagicMarker

Nice one OP.

helimachoptor

georgieporgy wrote: »

nice job, but I think you should have gone to Budapest. Not only would you have had a nice holiday , you could have had a shave thrown in

I've edited out my nose hairs before i posted

ordinary_girl

Evidently the dentist did a great job, your teeth look fantastic. How bad was the pain of the needle, as bad as the normal needle they put in your gum for fillings/extractions or worse?

btkm8unsl0w5r4

Rest_Energy wrote: »

Evidently the dentist did a great job, your teeth look fantastic. How bad was the pain of the needle, as bad as the normal needle they put in your gum for fillings/extractions or worse?

Its the same sized needle to give local anesthetic for every dental procedure.

helimachoptor

Rest_Energy wrote: »

Evidently the dentist did a great job, your teeth look fantastic. How bad was the pain of the needle, as bad as the normal needle they put in your gum for fillings/extractions or worse?

Robert Kind Joiner wrote: »

Its the same sized needle to give local anesthetic for every dental procedure.

I got numerous injections into the gums above my top teeth and it was pretty much painless. The only sore one was the one into the roof of my mouth, but the dentist warned me it would be painful

I couldn't testify to the size of the needle but fitz is a dentist so he'll know.

I remember many years ago thinking about getting this done and was put off as I thought i'd be in serious pain but it was in all honestly completely pain free (bar the 2 injections into my palate) and frankly I'm kicking myself for not getting the work done sooner!

Fistycuffs

Fair play for posting this OP it's really generous of you!! I think it'll help lots of peope.

It looks fantastic! <-- better than this guy.

I have three questions :

1 / How long did it take ?

2 / Is there very intense drilling and screwing into your jaw when they're doing it?

I can't help imagining the dentist approaching with his Black and Decker power drill to screw it it and that's more than a little terrifying.:o

3 / Has it affected you speech now that it's done ?

helimachoptor

Fistycuffs wrote: »

F
1 / How long did it take ?

2 / Is there very intense drilling and screwing into your jaw when they're doing it?

I can't help imagining the dentist approaching with his Black and Decker power drill to screw it it and that's more than a little terrifying.:o

3 / Has it affected you speech now that it's done ?

1: I got a short course of braces so excluding that about 4 months.
After the "screw" is placed in the jawbone it takes about 3 months or so to heal up. At the 3 month mark I went back up for a few molds to be taken for the implant and crowns.

2: You can feel (and hear the drilling) but in all honestly there was 0 pain or discomfort. The drill speed is regulated to prevent osteo-necrosis (thats for all the dentists ) Basically spinning the drill so fast it heats the bone up and kills it. There isnt a massive amount of drilling i felt, i thought it would have been a lot more. I got into the chair at 9 and numbed up then the parting of the gum I would say the vast majority of drilling was completed in 30 mins.

A small amount of drilling at the 3 month mark.

3: No none at all, my mouth feels "normal" again after so long and a big jump in confidence along with it

Calibos

I really have to get mine sorted soon. I am not so much scared of dentists but procrastinate about going to the point of inaction for years on end. My teeth are in a terrible state now. Just in terms of needing a rotten wisdom tooth extracted, loads of fillings, and probably two crowns (heavy enamel loss on two front teeth beside front tooth denture. Which ties into this thread.

I investigated an implant to replace the denture about 12 years ago but was told because the bone had shriveled away at the location of the denture I would have to be in braces for 3 years in total to move a tooth across to promote bone regrowth like what you did, a year with the tooth in situ and then a year to move it back to its original position. 6-0 months for a screw socket to knit into the bone and only at the end of year 4 would I be finished.

At the time I said to myself, screw that and said to myself I can live with my spoon denture. In hindsight I wish I had done it then. That said I can't see myself starting it now either. Your results look fantastic though.

The reason I procrastinated about sorting my decay on the two front teeth was I reasoned that I would need them crowned anyway for a bridge to replace the denture. Of course now I may have left it too late and might have weaked them too much for bridge supporting crowns.

Maybe the option now is extraction and two bridge supporting implants. Is that possible I wonder? I wonder how much €€€ I am looking at now?

How Strange

Congrats helimachoptor, my implant was completed in February and I'm so delighted with the difference and it's really helped my self confidence. I just got used to not smiling properly in photos so now I've always got a big cheesy grin.

donegal85

Hi there,

I have lost my front tooth and am now trying to decide what work I should get done. I am very impressed at how well your teeth look now and would be delighted if mine turned out as good! Could you please PM me with the details of who completed this work?

Thanks a mil!

queensinead

Congrats. They look great. I had two implants and six crowns plus root canals and veneers put in in Dublin last year. The fear of injections was offset by the terror of the bill. I felt slightly faint---but only when I handed over my credit card. The budget of 2008 brought down the tax you can claim on procedures like implants and crowns

The pros and cons of Dublin versus, say, Budapest?

You will probably never actually go to Budapest. Booking all those flights and hotels. Be realistic. If you have complicated work to do, it is way easier to do it locally. (But it will cost you more.)

On the other hand, be sceptical of Irish dentists' scare stories about Budapest. They would say that, wouldn't they? Hungarian dentists are often German trained and are excellent. The problem is the pressure to do a lot of work per visit. Fine, if you have simple work, like whitening or veneers. But it would have been a disaster for me. My work was slow and awkward with complications and many follow-up visits. I reckon I would have had to take about 15 flights to Budapest---a bit tricky!


There is no pain with modern dentistry. It is a perfectly painless experience. Or should be. The young dentists are wonderful. After the implant there is some soreness . Some implants (rare enough) do not "take" i.e. do not knit into the jaw.

My new smile is wonderful. I love it. Going to the Dublin dentist was a very pleasant--if expensive-- experience. The good thing about Dublin is that I can go back if anything worries me. I was going to change my small super-mini car for a new one. But spent the money on my teeth instead.
Never regretted it.

Big_G

Don't be skeptical. We've seen the horrendous work coming from some clinics in Budapest. I had one patient ask me to fly over with him and confront his dentist there who had been negligent and probably would have been struck off in this country for the shoddy work that was done and the poor way the patient had been treated afterwards.

Needless to say, I declined. But I did feel really sorry for the patient. He needed about €12000 remedial work.

Sorry, little bit off topic. Implants are great, and it is a good investment. I'm getting one myself.

ballsymchugh

Big_G wrote: »

Don't be skeptical. We've seen the horrendous work coming from some clinics in Budapest. I had one patient ask me to fly over with him and confront his dentist there who had been negligent and probably would have been struck off in this country for the shoddy work that was done and the poor way the patient had been treated afterwards.

Needless to say, I declined. But I did feel really sorry for the patient. He needed about €12000 remedial work.

Sorry, little bit off topic. Implants are great, and it is a good investment. I'm getting one myself.

and i need a patient for the course.....

helimachoptor

In general who do you guys get to do work on your teeth? Is it another dentist in the practice (if there is one), the nearest dentist, a dentist from college or maybe a mentor?

georgieporgy

I usually go abroad and try to fit in a holiday as well (ha ha)

But I'm not joking. When I lived in Canada I flew back to Cork to have an old classmate fix my teeth. Just a filling or two. I knew what he was like as a student and I value my teeth.

Bogman2010

Hi Folks ,

Just a couple of questions on this...

Tooth next to the front tooth has been missing about 9 years now , will there be sufficient bone for an implant to hold after 9 years ?(teeth either side don't feel to have moved during this time)

Also , when the initial implant is fitted do they place a temporary crown to the implant while it is setting to the bone , and fit the permanent crown after the 4-6 month period ?

Thanks

ardmacha

Also , when the initial implant is fitted do they place a temporary crown to the implant while it is setting to the bone

I wouldn't imagine a crown is possible, as it would transmit pressure to the implant that hadn't set in place.