Implants
When I was a kid, it seemed like I was the only one with teeth issues. The dentist, who's chair side manner was absolutly horrible, made a lot of money off my parents. He always seemed to find yet another issue with a tooth on just about every visit. I can even clearly remember him telling me while drilling out a cavity, stop complaining, you can't feel that's it's all numb. The very next time I had an issue, I told him, skip the novicain and just drill it. He looked at me like I was a bit crazy, but proceded on. At the end, I looked straight at him and said, "pain was exactly the same as every other cavity I've had filled here." That was also the last time I used that idiot doctor.
That same doctor failed to properly drill out a cavity, and so when I was about 20 years old, the tooth had even more serious issues and required a root canal and crown. I couldn't believe what I was being told. How does a 20 year old kid need a root canal and crown?! Unlike many people, I take oral hygene very seriously since my teeth are so bad. Either way, I was getting my second crown before even being able to legally drink here in California. The other tooth I chipped pretty bad in a motorcycle accident at 12, so that was at least something I was felt responsible for.
Back to tooth #20. I was eating popcorn the other night with the kids when something didn't feel right when chomping down on a kernal. I could feel my crown was a bit lose, and figured it just needed to be reattached. About a week later I was in the dentist chair, and he removed it with his fingers. "That's not good." he says, and tells me to sit up. The tooth broke off at the gumb. He told me I had basically 3 options.
- Do nothing
- Put a bridge in
- Install an implant
At that moment, I was pretty overwhelmed. I was looking at the model, which bascially was showing me they wanted to implant a threaded nut in my jaw, let it fuse to the bone then come back and install the crown. I couldn't believe it was going to take 4 months, with no tooth before they could install the new tooth. Both dentist recommended I seriously consider the implant, if I was going to do anything, since there some that currently have lasted 40 years and have good success rates.
This morning was the very feared and stressed out morning. Dr. Ericson, in Hayward made the process extremly easy. As I sat down in the chair, he noticed my Moab mountain bike chirt. Immediately he struck up a conversation about riding. He prenumbed my arm, so I didn't even realize the IV was installed, and as I was talking about the great trial systems in here the bay area, and he was telling me his passion for some Diablo hills, the next thing I knew, it was all over with.
I was able to walk out on my own power, and the seditive really didn't make me feel loopy or anything. My face is still quite numb as I type this out, but I can't believe the worst part is over.
In a couple weeks I'll get the stutures removed, and the new implant will fuse to the bone. If all goes well, in about 4 months, they can come back, cut back my gum and install the stud for the new tooth. After the stud has been in place for about 2 weeks, they can attach the new tooth. I'm figuring this little beauty is going to run me about $6k by the time I'm all done. But hey, nothing beats chewing steak with teeth.