My Laboratory work is complete !

Most people will never see "behind the scenes" of a dental restoration.  I am so fortunate because I work in a dental laboratory and was able to see the progress of my implants.  The case came to the lab from the dentist with a prescription, models were made and the rest is talent and artistry.  These pictures show what my teeth looked like before they were placed in my mouth.  The procedure itself is fascinating.  I'll bet you didn't know that every crown is really made by hand, with a ceramist using layers of porcelain to produce an ideal tooth in strength and colour to match your mouth exactly.  No two teeth are identical and no two people's mouths are identical.  The artistry and talent required for this work is well beyond my imagination since I am challenged to draw a "happy face".  Yet every day of every year people come and sit at their benches to create one unique restoration after another.  Just look at these pictures and see if you don't think they're beautiful!  (Pictures by Mark Rotsaert)

I'm ready to go!

As of today my treatment is complete but I won't be able to show my new smile for another week so please bear with me.  There are some photos I'd like to share with you so that you will see the stages of progress.  The bone and tissue healed beautifully, so my dentists say, and this is what the roof of my mouth looks like, ready to proceed.    Very scary, no? 

Teeth, bones, Osteo and calcium

I've always had poor teeth and soft bones.  That is fact.  Now, in my mid 50s, I'm a borderline osteo patient.  So when I decided to have all this work done it was imperative that the bones would heal around the implants.  Having sold my soul for this procedure, or actually, remortgaged myself up to my "teeth", I figured I'd better ensure my investment.  Load up on Calcium!  That in itself is an enormous undertaking.  You cannot take oral calcium without food.  Mind you, most oral calcium is calcium carbonate, i.e. derived from shell matter, which results in writhing agony unless you eat hearty.  So there I was, popping one of these horse pills with every meal - taking 3 times the normal amount, but only half as much more as the "Normal" person on the precipice of osteo.  For the record, I've never eaten 3 squares a day which was an undertaking in itself.  Required discipline, too!  I was so pleased with myself, despite that I was walking an extra 45 minutes every night in the freezing cold to work off the excess calories.  When I next saw my surgeon I was delighted to tell him my endeavours of the calcium.  Well, seems I'm not quite as brilliant as I thought.  My surgeon, Dan the Darling, as I've now come to think of him, advised me that too much calcium, particularly calcium carbonate, can cause long-term kidney problems if taken in more than adequate doses. Can't I do anything right????  In "right" I mean, proactive?  Is there nothing I can do to assist my prognosis and final result?  Apparently more research is in order!  Will keep you posted.

Osseointegration 90% complete !

Yahoo!  Saw my implantologist yesterday for x-rays.  My right side (3 implants) are perfect.  Bone mass is great.  The left side where he placed 4, is almost there. He said that I could continue with my reconstruction, i.e. get some teeth!, in about 4 weeks, if I chose to do so.  However, there's a few things to consider here.  One - if you rush the process your failure rate increases.  Beware the dentist who says you can get implants fully completed within weeks or a month!  He can do the work but can your bones handle it?  Two - I'm on the borderline of osteoporosis.  Come on, I'm 55 and the bones just aren't what they were.  I've been without side teeth for months so why would I rush the process?  Lastly, there's a heck of a lot of money at stake.  My hard-earned cash.  I said from the outset that I would wait 7, 8 or 9 months, whatever it took, as long as the process was successful.  So, to make a long story short, I've decided to wait till end of March to start the next stage.  I can't tell you how much I'm going to enjoy chewing food again!

A screw is not a problem!

Have you been waiting with bated breath?  My abject apologies....  December becomes quite hectic between my job and my family, which, by the way, are a couple of thousand kilometers away.  January is the month to regroup so, here I am, back in the saddle.

A brief update - one day mid December something fell out of my mouth while I was eating lunch and I nearly had a coronary worrying about it.  The thing landed in my hand - a screw!  I eventually determined that this screw of the ....  hmmmm...  not explaining this well.  Let's see.  An implant is a screw with a cylider attached to the end.  The screw goes into the bone, which is when you pray that the osseointegration occcurs.  Then there's a sort of miniature cylinder attached to the screw which also goes into the bone.  It should be flush with your bone when surgery is complete.  Then there's ANOTHER screw which plugs the cylinder.  It's only meant to be a plug I think.  Anyway....   the screw ended up in my hand and off to the surgeon I went, fearful that my money had already been wasted.  I was assured that it was, in fact, merely a screw and that they do come loose as a result of all the motion within a persons mouth (mastication).  Surgeon got out his screwdriver, gave my a few shots of Joy Juice and I was back to work in 45 minutes.  So....  a screw is nothing to concern yourself about.  It's just a little piece of metal.

Promise I'll be back very soon!

Stitches are out!

Today is Day 13 post surgery.  I had an appointment with my surgeon who said that the healing was very good and removed the stitches with only one little "ouch" from me.  Yes, he was happy with the progress.  I'm starting to eat foods other than mush, so the world seems a brighter place.

I haven't had a cigarette since yesterday, but have been chewing nicorette gum.  The surgeon took one step into the examining room and exclaimed "you're smoking!"  Oh good grief!   There is some good news and I'll post it tomorrow with more facts on the data I've uncovered about smokers and dental implants.

Stay well and keep smiling!

Am I doomed to failure?

Everything I have researched says that implants fail in smokers.  There's something called peri-implantitis, an inflammatory condition which results in bone loss and eventual loss of the implant, also associated with chronic infection (Wikipedia).  The inflammation is around the implant as the implant itself cannot become infected, and prevents my old friend, osseointegration.   All warnings were that a smoker needs to cessate anywhere from 4 to 8 weeks prior to the surgery and for at least 4 weeks after surgery.  Even anti-smoking aids are not recommended, such as gum or "the patch".  I smoked until the night before, and had 4 cigarettes within 24 hours of my surgery.  And I've been smoking half a pack a day since then.  When I'm not smoking I'm chewing nicorette gum.  I'm definitely doomed.

On the upside, if there IS an upside, I took antibiotics for the first 8 days.  This would have prevented any infection.  I've also been taking double the amount of calcium and 2000 IUs of vitamin D, over and above my regular daily vitamin.  Hopefully, this may counteract some of the ill effects and help the bones strengthen.  In my research I didn't find anything about smokers taking calcium to help with the implants.   I did, however, see that Vitamin C helped since that is one of the vitamins that smoking saps from your body.  Maybe, if I'm very very very lucky, I'll make implant history.  Maybe it will even be a successfull story.

In the meantime,