I’m Having a Hard Time Chewing

The standard in dentistry today is the three dimensional cone beam x-ray which can be a very localized three dimensional image that we can evaluate and virtually place an impact way before a patient is actually here in the office. We do a lot of this planning prior to patients coming in. More oftentimes than not, especially in a case where a patient has recently had to have a tooth removed, the surgery, we’ll call it surgery, but it’s actually really not as invasive as you would think because the ability to place that implant atraumatically is something that we always celebrate because patients are usually … There’s a lot of anticipation. There’s a lot of nervousness when patients come in because they think, “Oh my goodness. You’re going to put a screw in me. Immediately they’re relieved when the treatment may last 15 minutes to have this implant placed.”

We often get comments from patients that say, “Gosh, that was easier than having a filling done.” Even all through the explanations that I have for patients, they still don’t believe it until it actually takes place. Then it’s also very funny when I call the patient that night and usually will call the patient a few days later and the patient is not expressed any interest in taking pain medications. There’s really no need to take pain medication because it’s such an atraumatic procedure. Patients generally are leaving with a much better experience from a post operative standpoint. There’s much less pain, virtually no pain in most cases. Certainly we’re cutting down on things like swelling and soreness. Basically the whole patient experience is so much easier than it used to be.