28Feb
Are having dental implant placed surgically a painful? You might find this short patient feedback video useful. It is from one on my favorite patients, Jesse “pain-free” Abrahams, a patient for over 10 years now. He does answer the question of “Are dental implants painful?”
Jesse will talk about his cosmetic dentistry, dental implants, and his “painless dentistry. ” He had a couple of dental implants with dental sedation, and has been a pleasure to work with!
28Feb
I was attending a meeting of the American Dental Society of Anesthesiology in Las Vegas this last weekend where one of the lectures showed this video of Harvy Corman. I think it was from the Carol Burnett show. Very funny!
It certainly shows a fear that many patients I see have–Concern of the dental needle, or shot. This of course make fun of the subjest–and humor certainly helps! Would you believe that the groups that I see the most phobia in requiring dental sedation is nurses and physicians! If you are concerned, visit our Glen Ellyn dentist website or Wheaton dentist blog site for more information about how your visits can be more comfortable.
21Feb
Here’s a question I’ve been asked about—“What is dental conscious sedation?” Valid question as the 2 words seem to be contradictory as if you are sedated how you could be conscious!
The dictionary defines sedation as the “reduction of anxiety, stress, irritability, or excitement by administration of a sedative agent or drug.” It does not specify the degree of reduction.
In the dental setting there are a number of levels of sedation. Light sedation can be achieved with nitrous oxide gas (Laughing gas), or oral conscious sedation. For more information of the different levels see our blog site on sedation dentistry, or dedicated website on conscious sedation.
But why do we say conscious sedation? Done properly with conscious sedation, the patient may not be aware of what is going on in the dental office, but the patient is still able to respond to verbal commands such as to open their mouth. Most important, they are completely comfortable and have no memory of their dental visit (just what they were hoping for!).
This can often be accomplished with oral conscious sedation. However very often the level of sedation is not predicable with oral sedation. Most states prevent the dentist from giving incremental doses of medication without the dentist having their IV sedation license. Oral sedation medications require 30 to 60 minutes to take effect, the scheduled procedure is not able to be completed if additional oral sedation medication is needed for patient comfort. IV medications require just minutes to take effect and patient comfort and adequate can be maintained.
So what is the conclusion? If sedation is simply by “a reduction of anxiety…” most drug regiments will satisfy the definition. My experience is the “Patient’s definition” of sedation is that they are completely comfortable and amnesic (no memory) of the dental procedure. This may be accomplished with dental oral sedation, but is much more predicable with IV dental sedation.
10Feb
Benefits of Guided Dental Implant Surgery
The field of dental implants is advancing fast! We now use guided surgery to place multiple or difficult dental implant. Guided surgery uses advanced technology such as C
T scans, Simplant software, and Nobel Biocare software to produce surgical guides so the dentist can position the dental implant extremely precisely. The advantages of this approach are:
1) More accurate placement as the bone quality and morphology (shape) can be precisely determined, and the correct size and placement of the dental implants determined prior to the placement visit.
2) Fewer implants to complete the case is often possible if they can be more accurately
3) Flapless approach—I like to avoid surgical details with patients (unless they specifically ask of course), but flapless means we do have to “pull back” the gums to visualize the bone for implant placement. This “flapless” method allows better healing, more comfortable recovery (usually patients say they needed “an aspirin and were OK), and the ability for a second surgery to “recover the implant” at a later date.
4) Less stress for Dr. placing the implants—there is so information known before the appointment that they dental implant is “almost easy” at appointment time for both the patient and Dr.
5) Prosthetic planning and fabrication pre-surgical—Believe it or not I have seen many dental implants that were placed elsewhere that could never be restored with dental crowns, dental bridges implant supported dentures, implant supported bridges, or dental partials. By knowing the exact position of the bone and where we what the teeth to be after the treatment before starting, better outcomes can be easier achieved!
6) Shorter treatment times—Here’s one factor everyone wants! Not only is the healing faster and easier, but better planning can lead us to the final restoration and completion faster. In many cases, we can even.
Guided surgery does involve additional costs but clearly has many benefits. This type of implant placement is especially used where there is minimal bony support for the dental implants, where multiple implants need to be placed, cases where the sinus has to be raised (sinus lift), implant supported bridges, implant supported overdentures or dentures, “all-on-four”, teeth in an hour restorations, and generally any more complicated procedure.
Please contact our office for addtional questions at LiveWithoutDentures.com, or at 630-858-8800. Also look at our other dental impalnt blog, Wheaton dental implant site, or other Glen Ellyn dental implant site.
6Feb
Losing Teeth—the Emotional Aspect—what happens emotionally
I just ran across this article from the British Journal (Jan. 1998). They found that these people exhibited:
1) Bereavement—the feeling of loss was often as severe as the feeling of losing a spouse or child!
2) Lowered self esteem—many people felt lower personal value as they had “gone down the socio-economic scale”!
3) Altered self confidence—this was most dramatic in people losing all the teeth or getting partial or full dentures. The loss of self confidence was evenmore pronounced one to years after.
4) Inability to discuss this “taboo” subject—This goes across the back drop of lower self esteem and fear of social situations.
5) Behaving in way that keeps the tooth loss secret—many reported holing their hand over their mouth or changing the way they smile. Some reported even refusing to smile in public.
6) Altered behavior in socializing and close relationships—again, changing their ability to smile. Not eating in public was found in many people as they reported fear of food getting between the teeth, or even worse having false teeth come lose while eating or speaking.
7) Premature aging—this feeling that they had aged “before their time” was common in the group, and was greater as the number of teeth was larger.
Wow! Losing teeth is more than the cost of extractions and replacement. Dentistry has so many ways to replace missing. Dental bridges, dental crowns, dental implants, partial dentures, and even full dentures can replace missing teeth. The advances in dental implants especially can permanently correct the tooth loss problem.
5Feb
A Gorgeous Smile—What we Have and What we Want- Perception of Beauty
Personal Perception vs. Desire Missing Teeth and Smile
What are the personal factors for beauty vs. the person’s perception of their “reality?” In a Nobel Biocare Quantitative Survey in Aug. 2008 of over 54,000 individuals they found the following:
Feel it is Important Are Satisfies with Own
Smile 89% 74%
Hair 78% 75%
Eyes 67% 86%
Physique 58% 47%
The biggest gap was with dissatisfaction with the smile. Question is then, with all of the advances in cosmetic dentistry, would someone settle for this gap?
See our sections on cosmetic dentistry, smile makeovers, and especially the patient smile gallery. There are now so many options with porcelain veneers, dental implants, bonding, tooth whitening, and even cosmetic dentures!
13Jan
Here’s a question I’ve been asked form a patient from Wheaton looking for a sedation—“What is dental conscious sedation?” Valid question as the 2 words seem to be contradictory as if you are sedated how you could be conscious!
The dictionary defines sedation as the “reduction of anxiety, stress, irritability, or excitement by administration of a sedative agent or drug.” It does not specify the degree of reduction. In the dental setting there are a number of levels provided by the sedation dentist . Light sedation can be achieved with nitrous oxide gas (Laughing gas), or oral conscious sedation. For more information of the different levels see our blog site on sedation dentistry, or dedicated website on conscious sedation.
But why do we say conscious sedation? Done properly with conscious sedation, the patient may not be aware of what is going on in the dental office, but the patient is still able to respond to verbal commands such as to “open their mouth.” Most important, they are completely comfortable and have no memory of their dental visit (just what they were hoping for!). Done improperly they can remain alert and remember everything.
This can often be accomplished with oral conscious sedation. However very often the level of dental sedation is not predicable with oral sedation. Most states prevent the dentist from giving incremental doses of medication without the dentist having their IV sedation license. Because oral sedation medications require 30 to 60 minutes to take effect, the scheduled procedure is not often able to be completed if additional oral sedation medication is needed for patient comfort. IV medications require just minutes to take effect and patient comfort and can be adjusted maintained throughout the distist visit.
So what is the conclusion? If sedation is simply by “a reduction of anxiety…” most drug regiments will satisfy the definition. My experience is the “Patient’s definition” of sedation is that they are completely comfortable and amnesic (no memory) of the dental procedure. This can sometimes be accomplished with nitrous oxide sedation or dental oral sedation, but is much more predicable with IV dental sedation. Also, some patients want different levels of sedation depending on the procedures–for exmaple nitrous may be sufficient for one hour tooth whitening, but they want IV sedation for more difficult procedures like dental implants.
10Jan
Dr. Thomas Gibbs is a dentist in Glen Ellyn, also serving the towns of Wheaton, Lombard, Naperville, Glendale Heights, Carol Stream, Lisle and the Chicago area. His office concentrates on cosmetic dentistry, dental implants, and restorative dentistry. He additionally is one of the few dentists in DuPage County and Cook County that is licensed and certified for sedation dentistry, (oral sedation and IV dental sedation).
Many of the blogs in this will cover topics on dental implant, cosmetic dentist blogs, dental health and systemic health, dental sedation, high fear dental patients, gagging dental patients, and providing care to high fear individuals searching for the best and most comfortable dentistry.
10Nov
So how does it feel to have dentures. We had a lady form Carol Stream, working in Warrenville, in the position of losing all her remaining top teeth. She had many dental crowns and dental bridges some of which had failed over time.
What she hated was the prospect of having plastic on the roof of her mouth and not being able to taste food. She was equally concerned about continuing to lose bone as the teeth were lost, and wrinkles developing on her face.
Some of these problems can be particularly more common in women, who have softer bone in general than men (especially post-menopausal). All on four and Teeth in a Day were not an option due to the amount of bone and softness of the bone. She elected to have to full option of the implant supported bridge. Due to the softer bone it required 7 implants.
And what did she look forward to having when the case was completed? Bagels! We bought her a dozen at the completion of the case.
If you would like more information on dental implant alternatives to dentures, give our office a call at 630-858-8800. You may also go to our dental implant website and request additional Free Reports and LiveWithoutDentures.com
