“Sometimes I wonder why people spend their lives with missing teeth when a wonderful painless missing tooth replacement option- Dental Implant is available.”
One day, during one of the many times I was working with Professor in Gurgaon, I asked him this question, and asked if the people in Gurgaon Sector 22 reported their painless experience with dental implants. He said yes, they did. Which prompted me to ask why? He said initially it may be a problem with semantics. The way things are described. He said that when people talk about extracting teeth, they just say having a tooth “removed." As if it were as simple as having a hair cut. He went on to say that this is not the case, if we think of it from a medical perspective. He said when we extract a tooth we are performing a procedure in which we remove a part of the human body which was not intended to come out, or off. The tooth is torn from its bony housing as the ligament which attaches the root to the bone is ripped apart. An amputation is far more “violent” than “Just remove a tooth,” as if the process was merely as simple as pressing the delete button on a keyboard. Alternatively, he went on to say, a dental implant must be inserted into the bone gently. Not violently. And if done so, gently, the bone will grow onto the surface of the dental implant, over a period of weeks.
So, are dental implants painless? Of course yes!
Placement of dental implants into the jaw bone is relatively pain-free as the procedure is carried out under local anaesthesia. Ample time is given to the bone and the gums to heal before an abutment and restoration is placed after few months. Once stable, the implant is uncovered and a restoration often referred to as a crown is placed on top. Since the healing is completed, crown placement is again a painless part of dental implant procedure. In a number of cases, a temporary crown is placed on dental implant on the very first day of surgery. Today’s modern dental implant treatment plans can replace everything from a single missing tooth to a completely missing arch, and that too painlessly. With painless dental implants you can enjoy foods you love. Dental Implants are the only proven painless procedure to prevent bone loss after the natural teeth is lost. Dental Implants look much better and feel better, and apply the same force for chewing as natural teeth. So, pain should not be a matter of concern while taking a decision to get a dental implant placed. Some discomfort can be expected during recovery and that’s why I do prescribe pain relief medication, but most of my patients reported that they did not require any pill and this left a grin on my face.