Dental Implants

[ENF]

I had a root canal decades ago, it soon became infected, and had to be redone. This did not help, the infection stayed, and I ignored it for many years. I recently had oral surgery, about 7 or 8 months ago, and it's still infected. The peridontist said that about the only choice is extraction. Since I have so many bridges and crowns, I don't want to have to get them ripped out in order to put in a new bridge. I am thinking of getting an implant. Does anybody have any experience with implants?

[Generic]

I don't and I wish I could afford them. I am in the process of getting partials.

[Fiddle-Faddle]

I don't have any experience, but wanted to tell you of an acquaintance's experience. She had implants twice--and her body rejected them both times.

I gotta wonder--we've got enough autoimmune problems already,it does worry me to think of adding implants into the mix.

I have some baby teeth still. There never were secondary teeth underneath them, so the baby teeth never fell out. I was told 20 years ago that I should consider implants, but the baby teeth are still hanging in there. When they do fall out, though, I am just going to do nothing. They are molars, and the holes won't be seen anyway.

[caldwell12]

The ideal candidate for a dental implant is in good general and oral health. Adequate bone in your jaw is needed to support the implant, and the best candidates have healthy gum tissues that are free of periodontal disease.I dont have any experience with it but if you would try this procedure go to your reliably periodontists since they are specialize in these areas.

[mommida]

I will probably have to get an implant soon.

Front cap that had 3 root canals, two apicodetomies (the bakwards root canal) will probably fail soon.

Let me know how it goes. I heard more dental insurances are covering it now.

Good Luck

[Gemini]

I had a root canal decades ago, it soon became infected, and had to be redone. This did not help, the infection stayed, and I ignored it for many years. I recently had oral surgery, about 7 or 8 months ago, and it's still infected. The peridontist said that about the only choice is extraction. Since I have so many bridges and crowns, I don't want to have to get them ripped out in order to put in a new bridge. I am thinking of getting an implant. Does anybody have any experience with implants?

I have had one implant done and am having 2 more done over the next year a half. The first one went absolutely great and I have had zero problems with it. Healing was swift and complete. I also had to have some bone grafting done each time because it's always a good thing to build up the foundation that the implant is going into. It was easy....once the tooth was extracted, they pushed 2 cone shaped pieces of bone (I used artificial bone) into the sockets where the roots were and then waited 6-9 months for that to take. I was skeptical as I have osteoporosis/osteopenia from undiagnosed Celiac but take they did. In fact, it went so well, the implant surgeon had trouble torquing the post in because the bone base was so dense. I think it's because I follow a very strict gluten-free diet so now my body is healing as it should.

I would not worry about it if you are a good candidate for the procedure. I was nervous at first because of the Celiac thing and wondering whether it would piss off my immune system further but so far, everything has gone well. The implant guy told me there is a 5% failure rate with implants in general and he has done many Celiacs...we are a dentist's best money maker! He has had no more failure in Celiacs than the general population so that was good enough for me. I wanted my teeth back and will not do bridges and crowns. I have no regrets whatsoever with doing this. Good luck!

BTW..the procedure is not difficult at all. I think root canals are far worse, in my opinion!

[ENF]

Hello again, I have some updates. I know that this is not a dental message board, but so many of us have had problems with teeth and gums I think that it applies to Celiac.

In 2007, I ended up getting the crowned tooth with a failed root canal, which I wrote about in the first post, extracted. I did not get an implant at that time, but got a standard fixed bridge to replace it. This was on the top right side, in the back.

I recently had another failed root canal, in a bottom-right side tooth that was attached by a crown to a fixed bridge. I decided to get implants to replace this tooth and the missing one next to it, rather than the other options which didn't seem very good. I went to the peridontist yesterday for my first procedure, which including having two-thirds of the bridge removed, along with the extraction of the bad tooth. In addition, I had two bone grafts for both areas where the implants will eventually reside, to strengthen the area. All the work should be done in six months.

[Gemini]

Hello again, I have some updates. I know that this is not a dental message board, but so many of us have had problems with teeth and gums I think that it applies to Celiac.

In 2007, I ended up getting the crowned tooth with a failed root canal, which I wrote about in the first post, extracted. I did not get an implant at that time, but got a standard fixed bridge to replace it. This was on the top right side, in the back.

I recently had another failed root canal, in a bottom-right side tooth that was attached by a crown to a fixed bridge. I decided to get implants to replace this tooth and the missing one next to it, rather than the other options which didn't seem very good. I went to the peridontist yesterday for my first procedure, which including having two-thirds of the bridge removed, along with the extraction of the bad tooth. In addition, I had two bone grafts for both areas where the implants will eventually reside, to strengthen the area. All the work should be done in six months.

Good for you! The process does take time but it is worth it. I have now had 2 completed, the teeth look great and I don't have to worry about them decaying. I have one more to go but have been putting it off because I HATE the tooth extraction part.....the worst part of the whole process. After that, it isn't bad at all.

Hope everything goes well for you, which it should!

[ENF]

I'm pleased to report that I finished my dental implant procedures several weeks ago, and so far the two implanted teeth are fine. It took about ten months from start to finish, which was four months longer than I originally thought it would take.  There were no complications, other than perhaps a bit of sickness from a regimen of very powerful antibiotics the periodontist had me on for a week, and a few bouts of digestive upsets which I can't say were, or were not, caused by substances used during the tooth-fitting process.   I checked with the drug manufacturers that all the Rx drugs I was given were gluten-free, before using them.  

[Gemini]

I am happy to hear you are satisfied.  I am finishing up implant #3, which is my last for awhile.  I have been happy with the results, so far, and no problems to report. 

 

About the tooth fitting and digestive upsets....I had that happen on the first implant when I had the tooth impression done.  What I believe happened is that those impression materials use a lot of gums in them.....both guar and xanthan.  There is no gluten.  But gums can cause stomach distress if too much is ingested.  My dentist did quite a few impressions to get everything perfect and that crap is in your mouth longer than I liked.  It also causes you to salivate, so you start to swallow with that contraption in your mouth.  I felt like I had been glutened afterwards but the gums must have been the culprit.  If I eat too much or some baked goods contain too much, the same thing happens.  Gums can be problematic for some. 

[ENF]

Thanks, Gemini!  I'm sure that you are correct that the digestive upsets were caused by the materials used for making impressions, which remain in place for over five minutes in addition to any additional debris, which I didn't get a chance to brush away until I returned home.  These two implants feel very similar to the bridge they replaced, perhaps a little stronger due to the addition of the bone grafts below, which they are attached to.   I've had them for almost three weeks, and I'm still not yet used to chewing food on that side, lol. 

 

Hope your 3rd implant is as good as the previous ones. 

[Gemini]

Yup....it takes awhile to get used to that space being filled again and chewing on that side! 

[captaincrab55]

I went with the mini implant and 22 days later the crown was set.      Here's some info from my Dentist on the mini implants.

 

Open Original Shared Link

 

Good Luck

[ENF]

I went with the mini implant and 22 days later the crown was set.      Here's some info from my Dentist on the mini implants.

 

Open Original Shared Link

 

Good Luck

Thanks.  When there's not enough bone left to place an implant, as was my case, they must do bone grafts, which adds a considerable amount of time, and visits, to the process.