Frequently Asked Questions About Dental Implants

Can my bone hold implants?

YES! Even if you have osteoporosis and diabetes, your jawbone can hold dental implants. The only time we can’t place dental implants is if you have had a certain type of chemotherapy for cancer, which is not a very common type of chemo.

Do dental implants hurt when they are put in?

I know you may think I’m lying or just plain crazy, but after placing over 12,000 regular and mini-implants, I can honestly say that people have minimal pain, especially with these newer style implants. And a lot of it depends on what all you have done. Sometimes teeth must be pulled, bone must be reshaped or grafted, there’s infected bone and so on. Most people report the first 24 hours as being painful to uncomfortable, like having a tooth pulled, but by day 3 to day 5, it is just an annoying soreness and by day 7, most people report no pain. Most have it done on Friday and return to work on Monday.

Now, you can Google dental implant stories and find all sorts of horror stories, and many may be true, but you also don’t have the whole story. The patient could have been lied about smoking or having diabetes. Both of these conditions do not stop us from placing implants but we have to do things differently to minimize problems. I had a lady I placed 6 upper implants on for a screw-in set of teeth and her gums just would not heal even after 2 weeks. Then her husband came with her to a checkup and he said, “Well, if she’d take care of her sugar and put the cigarettes down, she’d probably feel better.” WHAT?! She denied smoking and diabetes in her medical history and was in extreme pain for 2 weeks. If she had told me the truth from the beginning, she would have likely healed with minimal pain as I would have done the procedure a different way. And sometimes patients get a dentist that is not trained well enough to place implants, but thinks because he went to a weekend course, he is ready for implants. Sad but true.

I have been trained by some of the best implant dentists in the world, recording 180 hours of continuing education in implants and still continue to today. I took a live patient course recently just to freshen up on any new techniques and have been placing dental implants for nearly 15 years.

Do you place the implants or do I have to go somewhere else?

I place 90% of my own implants. The times I don’t is when the patient has some very serious medical conditions, in which case I refer them to an oral surgeon.

We place many with just local anesthetic, but most are placed using oral or IV sedation. With oral sedation, you take some pills and have no memory of the procedure. And of course with IV sedation, you will be more sedated. But you will not be put to sleep! While most people do sleep through the procedure, it is not like having surgery in the hospital. You will not remember much if anything but you will not have a breathing tube placed up your nose and put completely to sleep.

What can go wrong with my implants?

If placed correctly, nearly nothing. If you are a heavy smoker, you have a much increased risk of losing an implant over time, but I have 3-pack-a-day smokers that have had their implants in for 10 or more years.

The biggest thing is you must clean around them regularly. They cost you a lot of money and can last forever but you have to do your part and keep them clean! They are much tougher than teeth but if neglected, bacteria can attack the bone holding the implant in and cause them to be lost.

Also, not coming in for routine checkups and letting the dentist check the implant, and mainly the bite. If your bite is putting all the forces on one or 2 implants, it can overload them, so the bite on the denture or porcelain bridge needs to be checked once per year, and we sterilize your teeth and clean the implants for you at a cost of $75. It’s just like an oil change…you are protecting an expensive investment.

Will implants to hold my denture in make me more healthy?

YES YES YES! Most people that spit their lower denture out to eat, which is about 80% of denture wearers, must eat soft, processed foods that are full of salt, bad cholesterol and sugars or carbohydrates. Imagine being able to actually chew a healthy piece of grilled chicken or steak. Do you have cholesterol problems now? Most denture wearers do.

Do you have cholesterol or blood pressure problems now? Most denture wearers do and they report the number one reason why is “I can’t chew healthy food because my dentures move.
Do you avoid social situations, such as church gatherings or family get-togethers because you can’t eat the food? Studies show that denture wearers become so worried about their denture falling out they avoid socializing with other people when a meal is involved. This leads to isolation, loneliness, depression and a decreased quality of life. It could also increase the likelihood of dementia and Alzheimer’s.
Do you choke a lot on your food? Denture wearers must chew their food seven times more than people with teeth and tend to swallow food before it is chewed properly. This leads to an increase in pneumonia and choking deaths among denture wearers. Dental implants restore from 84-100% of someone’s chewing ability, which means healthier foods and no more choking because it is properly chewed.
Did you gain weight after getting dentures? On average, people gain >5% more body weight in the first year after getting dentures due to a poor diet high in breads and other carbohydrates while low in fruits and vegetables.
Do you see yourself aging faster and faster? When the teeth are lost, the bone starts to shrink and ages the patient faster and faster. Dental implants keep the bone from shrinking and thereby decreasing the visual aging process of the face.

To read the entire study, click here.

Premature aging due to tooth loss. — Premature aging due to loss of teeth. Dental implants prevent this bone loss wherever they are placed.

Do you have financing?

Unfortunately, we can not finance anything in-house with the new healthcare laws. It makes us a bank according to the law, but Care Credit is a company that specializes in financing healthcare related costs. They can give you an answer in minutes of what you are approved for and for how long. They offer as long as 18 month 0% interest financing, but we find more people are approved for the 12 month 0% interest. Visit www.carecredit.com to apply. Be sure to enter Chad Gardner, DDS if planning to have treatment in my clinic, and we’d love to have you!

Why do I need a tissue graft around my dental implants?

The main mistake I see from dentists new to placing implants is not taking care of the soft tissue. This is a hard one to explain and it may just bore you but I’ll do my best to explain it. You have 2 types of tissue in your mouth:

keratinized or attached gingiva – seals bacteria out from the implant
mucosa – weak tissue that can let bacteria in

The attached gingiva is the tough tissue like on the roof of your mouth and when a tooth is pulled, it starts to shrink. There are several different ways to get it to grow back and I always do my best to grow more of it when the implants are placed so no grafts are needed later, but sometimes there is just not enough and we must graft some to keep the seal around the implants and keep food and bacteria out. But I have not had to graft around an implant in years after learning techniques to grow plenty of good, attached tissue when the implants are put in, and it does not hurt.