For anyone who has a dental implant...

[opalescent]

I’m having two single dental implants placed next week. Can anyone share their experience of pain and recovery following implant placement?

Also, anything I should stock up on?!

Thank you ☺️

You're not left with a gap at all. Mine were at the front. I had temporary fixed Maryland bridges put for the 3 months. Not a single person noticed and the bridges were nicer than the teeth that were there before! Haha

@Hedjwitch "Am thinking about investing in implants but a bit scared. Its such a visible place that i cant go round with a gap at any point in the process"

If it helps, I spent all my 40th birthday celebrations with a proper 'hag' gap in my top front teeth as I'd recently had a crown'n'post tooth collapse under the strain of eating soup and bread with my mother. But @baytreelane23 makes it sound like things have improved!

Compared to root canal, a dental implant is the rolls royce treatment. The worst bit is the first appointment which is the tooth extraction and then making sure you don't get dry socket. You are all numbed up so apart from the initial injections x 3, it is fine. It can either be super fast or might need a bit of digging around. But just pulling tugging. It does not hurt.

Then 4 appointments and 7 months later, new tooth. I don't even remember much because it is not painful (apart from the numbing up at the start). With each appointment, it gets easier and faster.

By the sounds of it you will be fine OP I was in the minority. My ear hurt like hell after and the headache. I had no sedation just the injections they give you when you are having a filling. I gave birth twice naturally without any pain relief so I am not a wuss but I had to have some infections at every stage of my implant as it hurt so much. Its been in place nearly two months now and I haven’t had as many headaches in my life as i have had in the last two months.

Anyone care to share how much it cost?

That sounds horrendous. Sorry to hear of your experience. I don't know whether your implant could be too close to a nerve.

The longer the post, the more stable it is. My dentist made me do a special scan to check how close the nerve was so he could use the right length of post. Can you see another dentist? The headaches don't sound right.

Mine cost 3,300. It was 2,400 about 5 years ago. I did not have a bone graft. The price seems to have gone up a lot.

I have decided to get dental implants too. I need two. Sinus lift and graft/implant is going to cost me £4,365. Straumann implants (which are supposed to be the best and longest lasting).

I am super worried about pain during and after the treatment but this thread has helped me feel a bit better.

Good luck with yours! 🙂

In the middle of treatment right now! Had the abutment fitted a couple of weeks ago and impressions for the new tooth tomorrow!

The tooth is top front and I had to have a bone graft. So big wait between appointments. Although the pain wasn't fun it wasn't too bad.

Probably because of where it was (and the bone graft?) by the next day I had substantial bruising and swelling which was good for eliciting sympathy lol! I looked like Moe from The Simpsons for a few days.

Also, huge amounts of emphasis from dentist and hygienist to keep my gums super healthy.

This is quite a good likeness:-

Thank you for this thread.
I had an appointment today where I've been given the options of root canal or extraction on a bad tooth and because of this thread I've confidently picked an extraction, and to invest in implants instead. Expensive yes, but if they can last 25+years with no risk of tooth decays and fillings etc in the future, then it is a worthwhile cost.

Oh I'm pleased it's been helpful.

Had my two placed yesterday! It took about two hours. It wasn't my favourite experience ever, but I can honestly say it was pain free. Even the numbing injections barely registered. Post op, it took about three hours for the local anaesthetic to wear off, and I've been fine since. Bit of low level soreness and discomfort, but nothing that can't be handled with ibuprofen. Amazing really, considering how invasive the treatment is, and all the drilling that went on!!

Fingers crossed that healing goes well, and thank you again to everyone who posted

I'm so pleased it went well! I was hoping you'd update us all. 😀

Glad it went well. Every day will get better, the bruising and swelling will come out over the next few days then everything will settle down. Keep off the toffees and eat soft food for the next few weeks. Keep us posted.

My last implant, 12 months ago cost £3,100 without any bone graft or sinus lift. The only real pain was putting the new implant in -it was probably only pressure but it really hurt.

And today after a very Painful few days, I've been given the option of root canal or extraction on a back molar. The tooth is apparently cracked, and there is infection in there. 3 injections and I could still feel the Pain when my tooth was touched, so as a last resort she agreed to give me antibiotics. ( they are very stringent about not giving antibiotics out these days and have to try every other option first...). So £99 later I still have to decide whether to go for specialist root canal work as it's too complex for my dentist (due to it being right at the back of my mouth) or extraction with subsequent implant - or leaving a gap. Based on past experiences (below) I suspect I will go down the extraction & implant route again although likely to need a bone graft so will be more than the previous £3,100 😦

The Last experience of root canal was because of another cracked tooth - there were 2 roots in the tooth but my dentist couldn't actually find the second one, so I had to have 2further appointments at a root canal specialist 30 miles away to solve the problem, and then a crown to seal it. there's no guarantee how long this will last. This procedure cost £1,280 🙁

It's a bloody nightmare isn't it. So expensive either way.

Personally, I have had failed root canals, and required extractions anyway in the end. I think I'd go for extraction, and then make a decision whether I felt it necessary to replace the tooth.

A couple of PP have mention sinus lifts. As a proud owner of one dental implant who's considering a couple more, what are these? I have no recollection of it being mentioned by my lovely dentist. What benefit do they offer? Do they add to the healing time/potential post-op recovery pain?

@CrystalSingerFan i don’t know if that’s what is meant: I’m my case I didn’t have enough bone in my upper jaw for an implant. It would have penetrated into the maxillary sinus. So I needed to have some artificial bone put in, a bit of padding, which took some time to “take” and embed itself. A few months, I can’t remember. Then the implant could go ahead. I wear a mouth guard at night to protect my teeth. It’s one of the best things I’ve done, took many trips, a couple of years, and £££.

So it would have gone into the blue “empty” space in this picture as the bone between the floor of the maxillary sinus and the gum was so thin. That was my understanding.

@@OlympicGoldfish

Oh thanks! I did have insufficient bone on one of my two extraction areas. Apparently the magic replacement bone stuff has done a good job after about a year so now an implant is an option. Didn't know some peeps called it a sinus lift.

The most interesting part of that bit was the general stuff is made of some bovine extract, so if you're a veggie or Hindu you can choose a different substance. Who knew?

Yeah, I didn’t want to know too much about what the “artificial bone” was made of 😄

If you have a tooth extraction (rather than a root canal), it is not good to leave the gap in the teeth for too long before putting in an implant. That is because the bone around the area of the extraction starts to shrink naturally without the pressure on the jaw bone caused by chewing which prevents bone loss.

The result is that that by the time you get round to the implant, you might need a bone graft to shore it up. This of course costs more and takes longer.

Without an implant to act as a placeholder, the surrounding teeth will also start to move which affects the bite with the upper teeth.

I believe it is best to do the implant/crown immediately after an extraction and consider both costs together.

@@blueshoes

Excellent point about getting on with it!

I knew I needed a bone top-up before the extraction as my MRI scan showed up the underlying bone thinness, so that had to be done anyway. Lovely dentist talked me through all the issues on the clever onscreen display. Modern tech, eh?

However, as the first implant went so well (conscious sedation is fab!), I started eyeing a two-tooth gap on my lower jaw. Dentist said I needed to get a move on as the teeth above were growing down and if I left it too long it would be too late for the implants. Must get moving for this winter - time of soups, soft stews and mash. 😋

@CrystalSingerFan all the best with the lower implants. I am a fan of investing in dental implants.

So costly, isn't it? I comfort myself that implants could support dentures when I finally lose all my teeth and run out of money.

Looking at private dental insurance. Wonder if anyone has got a good and affordable personal plan. Unfortunately my employer does not provide private dental insurance.