Dr. Weinberg Gets a Dental Implant

Working as dentists, we have seen many of our patients through a dental implant. This time, I was the one who needed a dental implant, so I thought it would be fun to share the implant journey with you from my perspective.

I had a tooth that had a bad root and finally broke and caused a local infection, so I had to have it out and get a dental implant to replace it.

I started by referring myself to Dr. Clarke, an outstanding oral surgeon. His office had me come in the week before the surgery to take some 3D images so they could decide how to proceed and make sure that everything would go smooth.

He gave me some antibiotics to take the day of the surgery. I took the antibiotics an hour before the surgery. I opted to be awake during the procedure and just have a local anesthetic. you can see when I got there, I was all smiles. His staff was super nice, kind, caring, and answered all my questions. I could see on the screens that they had my case thoroughly planned out and that gave me a lot of confidence in them.

Waiting for the doctor, I took a picture of the scary tray of instruments, but I knew that it would all go well. After a few minutes of waiting, Dr. Clarke came in with his team of two assistants. He explained step by step the procedure and then got me numb.

Dr. Weinberg in the dental chair

Much to My Surprise, the Pain was Minimal

I relaxed and closed my eyes and in no time my bad tooth was out, and the implant was seated in position and sutured. I really didn’t feel a thing.

The assistant went over all home care instructions and gave me some goodies including an ice pack. She assured me that if I had any questions, I should give their office a call and the doctor would get back to me quickly.

I drove home and anticipated that I would have pain once the numbness wore off. Much to my surprise, the pain was minimal, and I only needed to take Ibuprofen (Advil) and Tylenol. I was tired and napped the rest of that day.

dental instument

I Have a Whole New Chewing Tooth

The next day all I needed was Advil and I had to force myself to relax and let the implant heal because my energy level was normal and the pain was only slight, mostly some jaw soreness.

Of course, I continue to take the antibiotics. After 6 days I am back to normal activity, and I have very slight jaw soreness. I haven’t taken anything for pain the last two days. So now I just wait until the bone grows into the implant.  and I can have a whole new chewing tooth.

The entire experience was way easier than I thought it would be. This is only part one of the two-part procedure. At this point, I need to wait for the implant to become integrated with the bone. So, I will be providing an update here soon.

dental pain