Anyone had dental implants?

giantmutantbroccoli

@pennymakespounds - Wow, that is a lot of work. You must be so relieved now it's over! First thing I plan to do when everything's healed up okay is eat pizza. Mm. Pizza. Haven't been able to comfortably eat pizza for the past 5 years!
I guess I'm lucky that my initial problem was that I had too few teeth. They were so gappy it was really easy to clean them, so the dentists were always saying what great condition they're in. TBH the main bit that scares me is the hole they're going to have to drill to make the socket for the bolt/screw bit. It's replacing a tooth that I never had, so they're making a new socket by drilling into the bone.
Not worried about the pain so much as I was just scared of the drilling. I have two fillings that were done before the anaesthetic kicked in and they were bloody murder, so although I'm alright to sit in the chair and have my teeth poked at the idea of having drilling done gives me the heebiejeebies.

Re the smoking issue - I've talked to three lots of dentists about this and all gave me slightly different answers. Edinburgh flatly stated that smoking will guarantee that the implants fail, but I'm not that trusting of them because of the complete tosh that guy I saw came out with. Manchester said it increases the chance of implant failure, but you can still have successful implants if you are a smoker as long as you're in good health otherwise - but they won't usually reccommend implants to you if you smoke. The private practice lady told me that smoking increases the risk of failure, but not by that much if you have good dental hygeine, and if the implant fails the first time it can be repeated - however, she also said that many clinics won't do the implants on smokers at all because it might lower their overall success rates.
Personally I'm not going to push my luck - there's no way I'm going through all this only to have it fail on me. But I would be quite cross if the dentist started testing my teeth for smoke residue or something rather than taking my word for it!

pennymakespounds

talking about smoking !! ... i found the cure for 25 years of smoking .... when i had a heart attack when i was 40 !! ... some 15 years ago now. .. totally put down to smoking .. and of course i gave up on that day !!.

As i've spent those 15 years doing absolutely everything that the doctor has recommended ..or told me to ... that has helped me immensely through this dental treatment ... and so now i'll jump through whatever hoops he tells me to as well.
The way i "look up" to these experts is interesting .. i really do everything to the letter that they tell me to.

benfilan

giantmutantbroccoli wrote: »

@pennymakespounds - Wow, that is a lot of work. You must be so relieved now it's over! First thing I plan to do Snip!

I just reread your post and I now see it was because you went to a university dental hospital. Doh! I would be interested to know how you got started there, did you just walk in or did you get referred by your dentist? I need loads of work done - I would love veneers or implants but there is no way I can afford it. Currently saving to have a few white fillings to replace the dark grey ones which are showing through. I want my smile back! There isn't a dental hospital like that in Northern Ireland though

Teerah

benfilan wrote: »

There isn't a dental hospital like that in Northern Ireland though

A dental hospital like what? There is of course the School of Dentistry in Belfast but you need to be referred there for treatment by your own dentist. Implants are only carried out on a strict set of criteria eg in the case of multiple developmentally missing teeth

benfilan

Teerah wrote: »

A dental hospital like what? There is of course the School of Dentistry in Belfast but you need to be referred there for treatment by your own dentist. Implants are only carried out on a strict set of criteria eg in the case of multiple developmentally missing teeth

Well at the dental hospital at my university it was possible to make an appointment at the dental hospital yourself and pay a lot less than at a NHS dentist. I know the dental hospital in belfast doesn't work like that.

giantmutantbroccoli

@Benfilan

I just reread your post and I now see it was because you went to a university dental hospital. Doh! I would be interested to know how you got started there, did you just walk in or did you get referred by your dentist? I need loads of work done - I would love veneers or implants but there is no way I can afford it. Currently saving to have a few white fillings to replace the dark grey ones which are showing through. I want my smile back! There isn't a dental hospital like that in Northern Ireland though

If you live in the catchment area you can have the dental hospital as your regular dentist. I didn't do that, though, I asked my local NHS dentist to refer me. I was originally referred to get caps done on my front teeth to fill the gap in, but the dental prosthetics person took one look at my teeth (and the giant bunny teeth mock-up my dentist had made!) and referred me to the orthodontics department.

I don't know the exact reasons why anyone would get implants on the NHS, but these are some of the reasons why I got them (or the reasons I was told anyhow) if that helps.They judge each case by a set of criteria and various things can count in your favour for e.g.
-If the treatment is needed through no fault of your own i.e. congenital defects, accidental damage etc rather than poor dental hygiene.
-If the treatment is a continuation of other NHS treatment e.g. I'm getting implants after orthodontic treatment that they'd already done
-If the case is interesting or unusual!
-If the treatment has an affect on your mental health/quality of life. There are no photos of me smiling naturally (showing teeth) past the age of 9 because I was so self-concious about them, which is what got me the initial referral.

I don't know if you would qualify, but it is certainly worth a try! I would get referred before you get your fillings replaced though, as paying to get fillings replaced may suggest to them that you can afford to get other work done off your own back as well.
When you say veneers OR implants I'm bit confused - which do you want? If you get implants to replace teeth that are for the most part structurally sound they might not be too keen to do it on the NHS, generally they want to damage the existing structure of your teeth as little as possible. That worked in my favour because my only other option was bridges, which slightly damages the teeth next to the gap, but in your case I imagine they'd probably prefer to do veneers.
OTOH it's well worth seeing if you can get veneers done on the NHS, especially if your teeth are really affecting your life. Ask your normal dentist to refer you, telling them how badly your life is affected by your teeth because they'll put that in the letter to get you a referral, and it will hopefully bias them in your favour. However, once you've got your referral, don't go in saying "I want implants/veneers please!". Just tell them you want them to fix your teeth and let them figure out how - it's a teaching hospital, so part of the learning process is problem-solving. You're not just at the mercy of the students though, all their decisions are checked and double-checked by consultants/professionals.

I'm going in for the surgery tomorrow, I'll let you know how it went once the sedation wears off! Thanks for the support, hearing about your experiences with oral surgery and sedation have helped me to feel a bit less nervous. Still scared, but not so much now. Thank you!

lolly5648

I was referred to a dental hospital - I have upper 5,6 and 7 missing on right side and 6 and 7 missing on the other. I can't have a bridge as there is nothing to attach to. The hospital said that implants would be the best thing for me but there was no chance at all of having them done on the NHS.

acetate_monkey

giantmutantbroccoli wrote: »

@Benfilan


-If the treatment is needed through no fault of your own i.e. congenital defects, accidental damage etc rather than poor dental hygiene.
-If the treatment is a continuation of other NHS treatment e.g. I'm getting implants after orthodontic treatment that they'd already done
-If the case is interesting or unusual!
-If the treatment has an affect on your mental health/quality of life. There are no photos of me smiling naturally (showing teeth) past the age of 9 because I was so self-concious about them, which is what got me the initial referral.

Just to add to that, it depends where you live in Great Britain as to whether there is funding for implants. Each local health board have a set amount of cash in the pot, and if they haven't got much then they'll be more stringent on who's in and who's not.

brook2jack

You cannot use a dental hospital as your regular dentist as there is no pathway for continuing care. The most important thing is to establish a relationship with a dentist so you can prevent needing much treatment in future.

As an aside in my area there is a total advanced restorative advanced restorative budget of £35,000 per year. That is to treat all the people who have had oral cancer, birth defects and trauma.It won't even begin to cover the costs for all these groups.

NHS dentistry has a fixed budget which cannot possibly treat everyone and cannot possibly provide all treatments for everyone. A descision we all have to take is do we want to provide a core service for all to keep everyone out of pain and advanced treatments for the exceptional cases such as growth problems ,trauma and cancer or do we pretend that as a nation we can afford to provide very expensive treatments for everyone and encourage game playing to get the treatment you want at no cost.

benfilan

brook2jack wrote: »

You cannot use a dental hospital as your regular dentist as there is no pathway for continuing care. The most important thing is to establish a relationship with a dentist so you can prevent needing much treatment in future.

As an aside in my area there is a total advanced restorative advanced restorative budget of £35,000 per year. That is to treat all the people who have had oral cancer, birth defects and trauma.It won't even begin to cover the costs for all these groups.

NHS dentistry has a fixed budget which cannot possibly treat everyone and cannot possibly provide all treatments for everyone. A descision we all have to take is do we want to provide a core service for all to keep everyone out of pain and advanced treatments for the exceptional cases such as growth problems ,trauma and cancer or do we pretend that as a nation we can afford to provide very expensive treatments for everyone and encourage game playing to get the treatment you want at no cost.

I understand totally that I can't expect NHS subsidized treatment for things like veneers or implants or even white fillings - resources are tight. I was just interested in finding out more about treatment at a dental hospital, where it seems its possible to sometimes get treatment at a greatly reduced price (and I know that this is not the case everywhere). I'm happy enough to save up for white fillings - its a struggle but I feel its necessary for me!:cool: