No, I didn’t get those kind of implants. This morning I had my second of three procedures to replace two teeth that were damaged when I was 10 years old (see my previous post for more history on that).

For the bone graft (again, see the previous post), I was under a general anaesthesia; this time I would only have a local. Since my first consult, I knew this was the case. I would save a little money and I don’t get terribly freaked out by the dentist. I mean really, if he pulls a blood-covered gloved hand away from my mouth and he’s not even a little anxious, I’m not going to worry. Unless there’s a good reason for me to be put under a general (E.G. bone-harvest), a local will do fine, thank you. Besides, I hate the day and a half it takes to clear the cobwebs after dealing with general anaesthesia.

In the last week, I’ve had some interesting thoughts about what the implant procedure would be like. February of last year, when I had my extractions, I only had a local, so I had a pretty good idea what I was in for with that respect. The section of my mouth that he would be working on is rather difficult to numb because it’s mostly thick bone and hard tissue, so he’d have to make several deep, painful injections. Because of how my teeth were damaged and originally re-implanted and repaired, the dead roots had partially fused to the surrounding bone, so during the extraction there were several interesting crinks and cracks that resounded through my skull as he pried the long-dead remains of the roots of my teeth from their sockets. I was hoping the implant procedure wouldn’t be quite as bone-crunchingly unnerving as the extractions.

When I got into the office, they set me up and set immediately to work. Topical anaesthesia followed by 12 or 16 painful injections around the implant site. Once I was sufficiently numbed, he made two small incisions high above the gumline on the outside of my upper arch in order to remove the screws he had left in to hold the bone graft in place. Once those were out, he made another, long incision along the ridge of my gums to inspect the bone graft site and to get access to the implant area. I was completely numb, but it was the strangest sensation. I had a pretty good idea as to how the bone graft was placed and as he was getting in there and moving things around, it really felt like the graft on the backside of my arch didn’t take completely, had come loose and was floating free. It really felt like he was splitting a part of my skull open. Imagine taking a crow bar and prying away at the roof of your mouth… can we say disconcerting? Well as it turns out what I was feeling wasn’t bone that had come loose, it was where he was actually peeling away my gum tissue and flesh of the roof of my mouth from my upper jaw bone and hard palate in order to get access. Stomach churning? Yes. Fascinating? Absolutely

The doctor said he was really happy with how my bone graft looked; it was obvious that the graft happened, but there was no sign of split-fracturing at the graft seams. He drilled out two holes to place the implants. When he was actually placing the implants, he used a small ratchet wrench. It made me chuckle a bit and I wanted to ask if “…he wiped off the grease first”. I can’t describe what it’s like to have the sound of a ratcheting wrench resounding in your skull, but it’s definitely surreal-funny. The implants he used are very small, at only 3mm in diameter and 10mm long and they’re less like a screw and more like a tap. They’re slightly tapered and there are channels cut length-wise that bone will grow into to further stabilize the implants. In fact, in as few as two days, I couldn’t have the implants removed even I wanted to because of how the bone immediately grows in around the them. They’re made of titanium and are “…stronger than bone, which is why they can be so small”. I wish I thought to get pictures; I’m going to ask if he has a sample I can photograph when I go in for the post-op next week.

So right now, not much has changed from how I was yesterday, apart from removing two small screws from my gums and putting in two slightly larger ones where crown will eventually go. The doctor “buried” the implants. That is, he sutured my gums closed over the top of the implants. Before I go in for crowns six months from now, I have to go back and get them “unburied”. As small as they are, I hope he can find them.

When I got home, I popped two oxycodone to take the edge off the already-failing anaesthesia; that made for an interesting day working remotely.

One thing is for certain: Dental implants are expensive. But are they worth it? Yes… eventually.