Dental Implants After Invisalign - Question from the patient.

I completed my invisalign treatment a few months...

25 Jul 2014 - Day of treatment

Question: I completed my invisalign treatment a few months ago and I am now taking care of my two missing molars. I had root canals on these teeth, lost one about 15 years ago and had a bridge to replace my missing tooth. A few years ago one of the molars holding the bridge became infected and I had another root canal. That lasted a year and I had the tooth pulled and bridge removed. I startedInvisalign and my orthodontist said not to do anything until my invisalign was completed. I was so afraid of the implant procedure, and thought about another bridge instead. My dentist and orthodontist said a bridge was possible but because it was replacing two teeth felt like it would cause the anchor teeth problems. Then I would be missing 4 teeth! I already had about $6,000 invested in crowns, failed root canals and the bridge and the thought if doing that again did not make me very happy. Finally decided to do the implants after my dentist assured me I was an ideal candidate, did not need bone grafting.

So today was the day! No pain other than slight discomfort from Novocain shots. It took about 2 hours start to finish and I felt like my dentist was assembling a piece of ikea furniture in my mouth, lol! It's been 4 hours and the Novocain is still there but I can tell it is starting to wear off. We will see about pain after Novocain is gone. I am on antibiotics and Motrin. I hope the Motrin is enough when Novocain is gone!

I'll update more later!

~ viktoriajv, RealSelf Memeber

Answer from Dr. Sam Jain

August 5, 2014

Answer: With the advent of highly successful implant treatment, there has been a paradigm shift in the way we look at dental problems and how we treat them. Now there would be different advise for the same kind of dental problem compared to 5 yrs ago. Now we don't keep doing and redoing root canal treatments and root canal surgeries; we do implant treatment ( off course with great deal of thought and preparation) which is money better spent. The dentist must enable himself to give RIGHT advice (right diagnosis and right treatment for this day and age) to the patient, by continuing education and investment in technology. Any dentist who has a CAT scan machine in their office would be in much better position to give you a better advice, because they can see in your body in 3D.

One piece of Advice

"If a dentist does not have a CAT scan machine in his office, he is not a serious implant dentist."

Dr Sam Jain, DMD
Center for Implant Dentistry, Fremont, CA
www.bayareaimplantdentistry.com