George after Dental Surgery June 28, 2013
Fortunately, my only health challenge I have is bad teeth. My front ones are all okay but I have lost all my molars. Even with years of flossing and brushing, I still lost the battle to keep them.
When you have no teeth there are only two options; dentures or implants. Being that I am an ageing baby boomer who refuses to get old, I opted for implants. An implant is where they screw a titanium socket right into your bone. Once it heals they screw a tooth onto that. Implants will last you the rest of your life so I like the permanent, “do it once” solution.
Currently I have 3 implants and need 6 more. Last year I had a sinus lift and a bone graft on my left side, to get ready to receive the implants. So on Friday 28-June-2013 I was scheduled to receive 4 implants on my left side and another sinus lift and bone graft on my top right.
I ended up with 2 implants on the bottom and another bone graft on the left top and right top of my mouth. While the left side was supposed to be ready to receive implants, when he opened it up he found a hole with a green mass.
So that necessitated another bone graft. Just above your top teeth is a cavity called a “sinus”. It is just an empty airspace with not much function. To receive an implant you need bone to drill into and with a sinus in the way there is not much there. So the procedure is to gently lift a membrane separating your teeth and sinus and then pack it with bone material.
There are 3 sources of bone material you can use; a cadaver (from another human that died), bone harvested from your shin or hip bone, or new high tech product that will cause your bone to grow. It is not quite on par with stem cell technology but close.
The best material is the high tech material as it causes bone to grow but it is very expensive ($12,000 or so for one tooth depending on how much you need.) The next best is from your own body as it is not foreign material and has some more properties that were not sterilized out like from a cadaver but it involves another surgery and risk for infection. The cadaver is a low cost way to go and works for most people and that is what I opted for last year.
This is the first time I opted to get a procedure done in the hospital. I prefer to stay awake and avoid anaesthetic. But if I did it in the hospital the sinus lift would be free. Also, to put 4 implants and do two sinus lifts is about 3 – 4 hours which is a long time to be sitting in a chair awake so I opted to get it done in the hospital.
When the surgeon found the hole and the green mass he has to repair it, which took an extra hour longer. I was fortunate that he had some high tech bone growth material in stock that was intended for another patient next week. So he was able to put in $12,000 worth of material into repairing the hole. And the best part is I don’t have to pay for it. The Doc did tell me that I could not blow my nose for 2 weeks or I could blow $12,000 out of my nose.
Each implant is worth $1950 and then it needs a tooth for another $1900. This particular surgery cost me $3900.
So I am fairly sore and convalescing at home with two new implants and sinus lifts on each side. The doctor said that am a hard guy to work on.
My kids all happened to be home. My daughter Denise sold her house and it closed on Friday and she had to be here for that. Natalie (Josh’s new wife, who is a pilot,) was in Toronto and Josh had a free ticket he had to use up so he decided to come to Sarnia to hang out with his wife and Denise. So I got a very concerned call from a friend who was very worried because I had surgery and all my kids flew home. I didn’t clue in till later that the facts did sound ominous. But be rest assured that I am fine and the kids just happen to be home for non-surgery related events.