Dental Implant Surgery And What It Entails
In certain cases some people choose to discount dental implants in Richmond completely because of the fact that unlike any other type of tooth replacement it involves a surgical procedure. This is understandable if those in question really cannot (for whatever reason) face any type of surgery, but for the remaining people if you knew what the surgery entails there’s a strong chance that it wouldn’t be dismissed quite so quickly. With this in mind, let’s take a closer look.
Conscious sedation
On the whole, and depending upon the amount of surgery being carried out, a technique called conscious sedation is often used. It’s a cross between a local and a general anaesthetic whereby the patient remains awake but in a state of carefree abandon. Firstly it means that the patient can easily respond to the needs of the dentist, but more importantly, the patient will feel no pain. In fact most patients report the fact that they hadn’t even realised that they’d had surgery at all and the reality is that to most patients it’s no worse than having a filling or a tooth extracted. The good thing about conscious sedation is that it can be administered in a number of ways. Either harmlessly through inhalation, intravenously via a drip, or even via a pill so the surgeon in question has options open to them. In most cases the patient recovers from the anaesthesia within 30 minutes and won’t feel any signs of sickness.
General anaesthetic
In cases where multiple teeth replacement and bone grafts are needed a general anaesthetic might be the preferred method of choice. This means that the patient will be asleep throughout the whole process only waking up when the surgery is complete.
How long does surgery take?
The surgery itself clearly depends upon what needs to be done, but for a single implant with no complications it can take as little as 30-40 minutes. With more complex surgeries (multiple implants and bone grafts) surgery can take considerably longer.
What about recovery?
Again this depends upon the amount of surgery required and can be as little as one day in the case of a single implant and up to 4-6 weeks in the case of multiple implants. That said, prior to any surgery your dentist will put together a treatment plan just for you detailing surgery, recovery and refit times, so as a patient you know exactly what to expect and you won’t be going into it blind.
It’s understandable that you want to find out as much information about dental implants in Richmond before you decide to take the plunge so for this reason we advise you to either check out our website at www.sheendentalimplants.co.uk or alternatively why not speak to us in person and book yourself a free, no-obligation consultation on 020 8876 5277. This way you can get all your questions and concerns answered allowing you to make a fully informed dental decision.