Shelby Twp dentist replaces replaces root canal with dental implant
Hi, this is Dr. Antolak from thegentledentist.com in Shelby Township, Michigan. If you are interested in dental implants our phone number is 586-247-3500.
Today we have Kristin and she’s agreed that we can record this and put it on YouTube. This is about dental implants that we’re using to replace a root canal that she had done. Kristin had surgery on this root canal and it never worked out.
If we look over here, this is where she currently is. We took this tooth out about 3 weeks ago. She went to a specialist and they tried to fix it, but it was not able to be repaired, so we extracted it around 3 weeks ago.
Tell us what it was like before, and then tell us what it’s doing right now, at this point.
Kristin: It’s a sense of relief after the tooth was pulled out. Before, I had felt numb, like heaviness in that area. And I could feel my finger running over that spot right above in the gums. I ended up with an abscess, so that’s when I came in. Otherwise I wouldn’t have known anything had gone wrong. It’s like a weight off your shoulders now that the tooth is gone, because there has been years of issues with it.
Dr. Antolak: Yes, so it’s been a long period of time, and this has been a chronic infection so, we needed to take the tooth out, giving it a chance to heal. But with dental implants, if we wait too long then actually the width of the bone starts shrinking down. Even at 6 months you get 50% shrinkage of that bone, so we’re going to be taking care of this today.
So we went ahead and provided adequate anesthesia for Kristen at this point, and we’re just going to go ahead and create, what’s called the osteotomy. The osteotomy is basically the hole that is going to be used for placing the implant. This is done in sequential sizes as we get larger and larger. It’s almost like a wood screw that goes into the bone.
This is done so that we can make sure that when we tighten it up it has enough torque and ability to hold. This is also the dental implant that we placed in her mouth. It comes with an abutment which we can use to tighten up on it. This gives us the ability to hold it in place without affecting the titanium surface, which has been completely sterilized and placed under the bone.
So now we’re putting into a driver. This is going to go almost like a screwdriver, and it is going to go right in here. Then we’re going to go ahead and place it in with some pressure. A lot of accuracy is going to be involved in putting that in. So we’re just working it in place now little by little, and she’s not feeling any pain right now either. She’s just feeling me pushing a little bit, because bone does not feel pain.
And right now, at this point in time, we’ve actually placed the dental implant in her mouth. We’re going to just go ahead and unscrew the abutment part, which is used as a crown eventually. This is the part that you’re used to seeing. For example, if a tooth had a dental crown for a natural tooth there. So we can see this is the abutment, as I’m removing it. We’re going to go ahead and just take it out. So this is how it works.
She’s going to be spending about a couple days with maybe a little discomfort or a little pressure, but that should be about it, believe it or not. Like I said before, most of the pain comes from the fibers around the bone.
This is the dental implant abutment that I was talking to you about. This was actually modified so that we can give the most aesthetic result possible. So at this point in time, we’ve completed this process, and I’d like to show you what it looks like to have the implant placed, including the abutment. The abutment is a metal piece, as we can see right there, that is actually torqued into the implant, which is the screw that will act to support an aesthetic crown. We’re going to actually make a temporary right now, and we’ll finish up in about 4 weeks or so. We will let you know what it looks like then.
A few months later:
Dr. Antolak: Okay, so here we are a few months later with Kristin and the implant is healing really well. We’ve had a temporary on that we’re trying to nurse along until her insurance renews in January.
So we’ve just remade the temporary. Maybe let us know how you’ve been doing with it, and how the implant has been feeling.
Kristin: No pain. No pain at all. I was worried about having to take any type of heavy medications as far as pain relievers. I just took Motrin. There’s no pressure no pain during the entire procedure It’s been going great.
Dr. Antolak: So all that pressure you felt when you had the infection in the tooth is gone?
Kristin: Yeah, gone.
Dr. Antolak: That was a long time too. It lasted for a long time.
Kristin: Yeah it was. It was definitely a weight lifted off my shoulders. It’s nice to finally not have to worry about that tooth anymore.
Dr. Antolak: So we’re looking forward to putting the other one in and treating it like a natural tooth.
So if you have a tooth that’s missing or one that’s been chronically giving you problems and would like to discuss dental implants just give us a call at 586-247-8500. Thanks.