Is it Painful to get Dental Implants?
Left: Titanium Implant with Zirconia Crown. Right: Zirconia Implant and Crown
Dental Implants are the biggest advancement to dentistry of the century. Dental implants have made it possible to replace teeth with equally functional replacement teeth. Dental implants replace the missing tooth’s root portion making a strong biological connection with the surrounding healthy jaw bone. You may have heard details about drilling and screwing of dental implants into the jaw. It sounds painful and seems like a major surgical procedure with associated trauma, pain and discomfort. In reality, placement of dental implants in your jaw bones is easy, simple and done with minimal trauma. Dental Implants are placed passively into the jaw. The jaw bone, grows new bone that surrounds and attaches to the newly “implanted” tooth root. It is not “screwed” into a strong position as people may assume or think. As compared to performing diseased tooth removal or carrying out root canal treatment procedures, implant procedure are simple, easy to sit through, short-lived and rather painless. During placement, Dental implants have been associated with no or little discomfort even under simple local anesthesia in a routine dental office setting. Newer techniques and implant kits have even made it easier. Often there is no need to make an incision. The ideal time to place a dental implant is at the time of tooth removal – immediate dental implant placement. During immediate implant placement there is no need to make a new bony hole because the implant can be placed by slightly modifying the extraction site.
Your dental health care provider will take complete history and a comprehensive visual and radiographic examination of the intended area for dental implant placement. CBCT imaging can be done for the evaluation of height, width, thickness and quality of jaw bones for achieving high success rates. Specialized imaging will also help in identifying the need for bone grafting and sinus lift procedures for minimizing discomfort and complications in the future. You will be thoroughly described all the aspects and steps of treatment procedure for getting an informed consent. After taking informed consent, topical anesthetic will be applied on oral soft tissues for minimizing needle prick followed by administration of profound local anesthesia. You will not feel pain and discomfort during the whole procedure.
For needle phobic patients or those who suffer from dental phobia, nitrous oxide conscious sedation is an ideal option. You will not feel any discomfort and the whole procedure will be performed in a calm and soothing environment. Feel free to visit your dental implant surgeon for the replacement of missing and lost natural teeth without any fear of pain. Dental implant procedures do not hurt and will restore your eating, chewing, biting, speech and smiles in the most ideal manner.