Dental Implants :-(

[cmzaha]

I love it when people tell me how simple Dental Implants are. Not for some of us. After 25 yrs of all but 4 teeth crowned I have lost some of my crowns and this journey is a nightmare. Last month two implants were placed and I have been in severe pain since. had one more tooth extracted which my dentist and oral surgeon thought the pain was coming from. Nope, today my surgeon is removing one of the implants. Yeah, the healing process starts again so he can move the implant and it cost me another tooth on my bridge. This is taking a serious dent out of my house money. At $1500 per crown, it adds up fast when I already replaced 4 crowns. Hopefully, after today the pain will be gone. This is not just pain 1-10 it is a 15 and pretty intolerable.

As I told my husband this is exactly why I will not have the knee replacement surgery that I need. Nope, nada. I have cataract surgery and one of the surgeries went south years ago. These types of procedures just do not always go as planned for me.

 

[Carly B]

I'm sorry you're going through this. I had both knees replaced at the same time 4 years ago, and the first week of June I was sent to ER for emergency dental surgery and was in the hospital a couple days and laid up from the pain for two months. I lost all of June and 3/4 of July. Still dealing with the mouth issues, so that's one day at a time. You are so right about the pain being a 15 on a scale of 10.

I told my husband, whose dentist wants him to have a COMPLETE set of implants that this mouth pain was just as bad, if not worse, than the knee pain.

ETA in terms of pain--when I was discharged from the hospital after my oral surgery, they said the best way to deal with pain was to take 3 ibuprofen and 2 Tylenol every four hours or as needed. They discovered this worked as well as opioids without the addiction issue that opioids have. The OTC blend worked for me, thankfully. Usually Tylenol does nothing for me, but when taken with IB, I found it pretty effective.

 

[cmzaha]

My former Dentist told me yrs ago about the IB/Tylenol mix but it is not even working at this point. 4 ib's with Norco dulls it for 3 hrs but does not get rid of the pain. There is not much worse than dental pain, which I have gone through a lot of and have a high tolerance for, fortunately I do not tend to get addicted to meds. If I need them I take them if not I do not.

Good luck to you, this can be horrendous.

 

[TheGecko]

Oh yeah, they make dental implants sound so easy...and affordable. NOT.

 

[cmzaha]

Not affordable is an understatement. My husband had one done in Mexico, where he has a great dentist but he would not let me go down there and I am glad for that. His was $1200 from extraction to finish but 3 trips down.

My implant is out and my oral surgeon thinks it was graph material that came loose. If nothing else with all his scraping and cleaning out he found the really painful spot. We will see. Fortunately, the other implant seems to be fine, now only 2 or 3 to go.

 

[earlene]

I am sorry to hear how horrible this is for you, Carolyn! I decided long ago that I was unwilling to even think about implants after what I went through with the repeated infections of one of my crowns. The pain was horrible and to have to get it drilled again and again in an attempt to save that tooth was more than I could tolerate again, so I am toothless in that part of my mouth. I do have a filler tooth there (flipper/partial denture) and would rather deal with this than any more new holes in the bony parts of my jaw!

The fact that you are even willing to go forward with 2 or 3 more implants impresses me no end! Sounds like you are a glutton for punishment.

 

[MelissaG]

I have two implants on the bottom, all teeth pulled and false teeth. Nothing about it was easy and it hurt. But now I rarely wear my teeth and use my implants like fangs to pull my food apart. You will get used to it, I promise. Try ordering popeyes dirty rice and gravy. Mix them together. Its an awesome dinner while your mouth heals. Oh and olive gardens gnochi too. Its really soft and comes with bits of chicken. I totally lived off things like that for a while.

 

[linne1gi]

I love it when people tell me how simple Dental Implants are. Not for some of us. After 25 yrs of all but 4 teeth crowned I have lost some of my crowns and this journey is a nightmare. Last month two implants were placed and I have been in severe pain since. had one more tooth extracted which my dentist and oral surgeon thought the pain was coming from. Nope, today my surgeon is removing one of the implants. Yeah, the healing process starts again so he can move the implant and it cost me another tooth on my bridge. This is taking a serious dent out of my house money. At $1500 per crown, it adds up fast when I already replaced 4 crowns. Hopefully, after today the pain will be gone. This is not just pain 1-10 it is a 15 and pretty intolerable.

As I told my husband this is exactly why I will not have the knee replacement surgery that I need. Nope, nada. I have cataract surgery and one of the surgeries went south years ago. These types of procedures just do not always go as planned for me.

I hear you. Last year I had a root canal (from years ago) fail. I never knew these things could happen. It took months after removing the old root canal before I could get 2 implants. And mine were $2500 each. I had to wait 5 months before my dentist would do the implants. It’s been about 8 months now and finally feel like normal. Then we moved in March to a new gated community with a huge Pickle Ball center. So I tried it out, it was fun at first but, I fell in May (the 19th) while running backwards (not supposed to do that!) - anyway I fractured my L-1 vertebrae. I had the option to have surgery which may have been a quick fix, but I was afraid of failure, so it’s just been a waiting game, to let the fracture heal naturally with time (and a back brace). It’s now just over 3 months & I can finally turn over in bed without pain. So it’s getting better, thankfully.
I also had my knee replaced 11 years ago and that was awful as well, took over a year to be somewhat normal and 3 years before it felt like my own knee.
So I understand what you’re going through, but you have to keep on keeping on. Eventually it’ll be better. We’ll be praying for you.

 

[Nona'sFarm]

I love it when people tell me how simple Dental Implants are. Not for some of us. After 25 yrs of all but 4 teeth crowned I have lost some of my crowns and this journey is a nightmare. Last month two implants were placed and I have been in severe pain since. had one more tooth extracted which my dentist and oral surgeon thought the pain was coming from. Nope, today my surgeon is removing one of the implants. Yeah, the healing process starts again so he can move the implant and it cost me another tooth on my bridge. This is taking a serious dent out of my house money. At $1500 per crown, it adds up fast when I already replaced 4 crowns. Hopefully, after today the pain will be gone. This is not just pain 1-10 it is a 15 and pretty intolerable.

As I told my husband this is exactly why I will not have the knee replacement surgery that I need. Nope, nada. I have cataract surgery and one of the surgeries went south years ago. These types of procedures just do not always go as planned for me.

So sorry you're having such a tough time. I hope the rest of the procedures go much more smoothly without such horrible pain.

 

[cmzaha]

I'm really sorry to hear about your difficult experience with dental implants. It's important to find a skilled and experienced dentist who can handle complex cases like yours.

I have a fantastic maxillofacial surgeon, and if I had anyone else I could be in real trouble. As of this date, the infection is finally gone and we are deciding if we proceed with another implant slightly away from the area. I am still a long way away from being done with my implant journey and it was only 3 implants. Implants are not Cheap or easy. I had the way they advertise on tv to just go have all your teeth replaced with implants like everyone can afford it. It is an easy $50-60k for full mouth and they are not all implants.

 

[Obsidian]

I only have one implant and with the failed root canal, extraction, bone graft and implant, it was over 3k.
Glad your infection is gone and heres to hoping for a drama free fix

 

[MelissaG]

I adore mine. I'm not wearing my teeth in the photo next to this post. The implants help prevent jaw recession after removal of your teeth even if you don't wear the dentures. Teeth help keep the blood flowing and keep your jaw strong. Removing them is a big problem and can cause problems in themselves. Even if you have dentures, the recession of your jaw will still happen. The implants stimulate the same areas as teeth do. I rarely ever wear my dentures because they are incredibly annoying. Having implants on the bottom is like having vampire incisors lol.

 

[xuledywo]

I hear you. Last year I had a root canal (from years ago) fail. I never knew these things could happen. It took months after removing the old root canal before I could get 2 implants. And mine were $2500 each. I had to wait 5 months before my dentist would do the implants. It’s been about 8 months now and finally feel like normal. Then we moved in March to a new gated community with a huge Pickle Ball center. So I tried it out, it was fun at first but, I fell in May (the 19th) while running backwards (not supposed to do that!) - anyway I fractured my L-1 vertebrae. I had the option to have surgery which may have been a quick fix, but I was afraid of failure, so it’s just been a waiting game, to let the fracture heal naturally with time (and a back brace). It’s now just over 3 months & I can finally turn over in bed without pain. So it’s getting better, thankfully.
I also had my knee replaced 11 years ago and that was awful as well, took over a year to be somewhat normal and 3 years before it felt like my own knee.
So I understand what you’re going through, but you have to keep on keeping on Smile Vegas Dental. Eventually it’ll be better. We’ll be praying for you.

My teeth are a mess and I was thinking about doing the full mouth implant deal. Is this better than dentures? Is it painful to do? What does it cost?

 

[MelissaG]

My teeth are a mess and I was thinking about doing the full mouth implant deal. Is this better than dentures? Is it painful to do? What does it cost?

Whether it's better than dentures is up to you. As for cost, in the US it's expensive. That's why I only have two on the bottom. I suggest talking to your dentist.

 

[linne1gi]

My teeth are a mess and I was thinking about doing the full mouth implant deal. Is this better than dentures? Is it painful to do? What does it cost?

Definitely dentures are cheaper. Implants run several thousands.

 

[Tammyfarms]

My teeth are a mess and I was thinking about doing the full mouth implant deal. Is this better than dentures? Is it painful to do? What does it cost?

As mentioned, cost will depend on your country. In the US they are expensive. I have two and am very happy I went with implants. Not sure what the UK standard is, in the US there are two camps, some practices will do the whole process in a day. I strongly do not recommend this method. To properly install implants the bone where the teeth was removed has to heal, this takes a couple months. Then the implant is installed and another healing period of a couple months. Then, finally the crown is placed on the implant. It takes 4-6 months from start to finish.
A friend had the quick method and it failed. The dentist who did it wouldn’t fix the problem without charging her for a new set. I talked to my oral surgeon about this and he said the number of failures with the quick method is much higher. Makes sense as allowing the bone to heal in between steps makes for a more solid base.

 

[A-Polly]

I have only one implant — which I am very happy with! — and my experience was the same as @Tammyfarms. The months it took from start to finish were well worth the successful outcome. It is an expensive process in the US, though. I don't have dental insurance, but an acquaintance who did seemed to have to spend a lot anyway (not sure of the details of his coverage), but then his quick-method implant failed and had to be re-done (more money, much more pain and/or discomfort to endure — ugh! I felt so sorry for him!).

 

[Tammyfarms]

I have only one implant — which I am very happy with! — and my experience was the same as @Tammyfarms. The months it took from start to finish were well worth the successful outcome. It is an expensive process in the US, though. I don't have dental insurance, but an acquaintance who did seemed to have to spend a lot anyway (not sure of the details of his coverage), but then his quick-method implant failed and had to be re-done (more money, much more pain and/or discomfort to endure — ugh! I felt so sorry for him!).

We have good insurance but because we went with an out of network oral surgeon I paid about half. In NC that ended up being somewhere between $1,000 and $1,500 for one tooth. Thankfully neither of mine have given me any trouble and I am glad I spent the money.

 

[Marie_with_an_e]

I had my implants placed in the late 90s by a USAF surgeon, so did not have to pay for them. The entire process took over two years and was extremely painful, involving 2 bone grafts, a pierced sinus cavity, severe sinus infections and 3 gum grafts. The gum grafts were unsuccessful so you can see metal if my upper lip is pulled up too far. It was discovered a few years later that I had extremely severe osteoporosis (I was in my late 20s at the time) so had almost no bone in my jaw and delayed healing. Fast forward 26+ years and one of the implants is now coming through the bone (or lack thereof) in my upper jaw (you can feel it through the skin next to my nose) but it’s not painful or uncomfortable at all.

All that to say I would probably do it again because of how long they’ve lasted, how convenient they are, and how much the procedure has been refined since I got mine. They also look great!

 

[Tammyfarms]

I had my implants placed in the late 90s by a USAF surgeon, so did not have to pay for them. The entire process took over two years and was extremely painful, involving 2 bone grafts, a pierced sinus cavity, severe sinus infections and 3 gum grafts. The gum grafts were unsuccessful so you can see metal if my upper lip is pulled up too far. It was discovered a few years later that I had extremely severe osteoporosis (I was in my late 20s at the time) so had almost no bone in my jaw and delayed healing. Fast forward 26+ years and one of the implants is now coming through the bone (or lack thereof) in my upper jaw (you can feel it through the skin next to my nose) but it’s not painful or uncomfortable at all.

All that to say I would probably do it again because of how long they’ve lasted, how convenient they are, and how much the procedure has been refined since I got mine. They also look great!

Thank you for your service. I hope your osteoporosis is doing better.