Have you had a tooth implant? If so, did it cause you pain and who might be a good dentist to consult?

Answer 1

I have dental implants. These are things to ask your dental professional when making your choice. You can choose a Prosthodontist, Oral surgeon or Periodontist.

What are your qualifications?
In addition to eduction and training, it is important that your dental specialist be board-certified. Board certification may vary for each specialty, but generally means that, in addition to completing dental school, a doctor has participated in an approved multi-year residency program approved by the American Dental Association. The doctor voluntarily takes a rigorous examination administered by a board which is made up of experts in the specialty.

How long have you been performing dental implant surgery or making crowns for implants?

Choose a doctor who has at least several years of experience in implant surgery and/or making crowns for implants. The skill of the doctor is a key factor in the success of your treatment. Look for a doctor who performs fifty to one hundred dental implants procedures per year.

What is your success rate?

When considering dental implant treatment it is important to know a little about statistics. Be sure to find out the doctor's statistical success rate in performing dental implants. You may have read that the overall success rate for dental implants is 95 percent; however, this statistic may have no bearing on the success rate of an individual doctor.

You should learn the doctor's success rates based on patient records. Success rates for implants vary, depending on which part of the mouth the implants are placed. For example, the success rate for implants is not as high in the upper and lower back jawbones. Implant placement and bone integration is a biologic process and is never 100 percent successful for every patient. However, an experienced surgeon should have an overall success rate of 93 percent or better.

What brand of implants do you use? How long have you been using this system? How long has the company provided implants to the dental profession?

In addition to the health of your bone and the skill of your doctor, the quality of the materials used for your implants is key to the long-term success of your implants. Ask the doctor about the type of implants he or she uses and how dependable they are. Chances are you won't be familiar with the brand name, but find out why the doctor chooses that brand. How long has the doctor been using a given implant system? How dependable are they? Does the manufacturer have research that demonstrates the long-term effectiveness of the implants system? Be cautious about choosing a doctor using a new system with which he or she has little experience.

My I interview former patients?

Ask if you may speak to former patients. Personal experiences are good indicators of quality care. The dental specialist should be willing to give you names and phone numbers of patients who have agreed to be interviewed. You want to learn whther the former patient has confidence in the doctor. Was the dentist compassionate and informative, taking time to answer patient questions? Was the support staff helpful? You might ask former patients other questions such as


* How would you describe the way the doctor dealt with you?
* Were you satisfied with the outcome of your implants?
* Did you have any problems? If so, what were they and how were they resolved?
* Did you have much pain? If so how was it managed?
* How did implants change the quality of your life?
* What advice do you have for me, a new patient?

Where will my surgery be performed?

In some cases your surgery will be performed in the office of a dental specialist. At times the surgery is performed in hospital or surgery centers.

Will I receive anesthesia for the surgery?

During your consultation, you should discuss the anesthesia options with your surgeon. Impant surgery may be performed with administration of local anesthetic very similar to anesthetic given to you for routine dental fillings. However, if you would like to be completely unaware of the procedure, intravenous sedation or general anesthesia can be administered. If you choose to have sedation, it may be administered by a dental specialist trained and certified to deliver sedation. If you choose general anesthesia, or surgeons are trained and certified to provide this service. In some instances, a medical anesthesiologist may deliver your anesthesia.

Patients requiring sedation or genral anesthesia for their procedure may need the following:

* Preoperative assessment, including health survey and possible lab tests
* Contact with the dental professional prior to the procedure to review patient's medical history
* A physical assessment on the day of the surgery
* Written and verbal post-operative instructions
* Telephone contact and follow-up the evening of the procedure

Patients undergoing general anesthesia should be in good health, have no evidence of chest cold, fever or flu, and be fasting as instructed six to eight hours prior to surgery.

Answer 2

It's possible, depends on how long you've had the abscessed tooth and how bad the infection is. The virus/bacteria could eventually travel to other areas of your body and cause a cold/flu. However, it's more likely that you have the flu as well as an abscessed tooth. Hope that helps. Feel better soon!

Answer 3

1

Answer 4

anything you put in your jaw is going to launch an immune reaction. the body sees it as a foreign invader and eventually encapsulates it. the same thing happens with breast implants and that is why they have to be replaced every 10 years or so. it is also the reason that implants are said to last approx 15 yrs. they say the bone grows around it. well, at first it does. then over time, you see it pulling away because of the antibodies it builds up to it (normal reaction to anything you put inside the body), and then it gets loose. if implants were a good thing and this did not happen, they would last 50 years or more. in the last decade or so, more and more people have gotten them, so in a few years, we are going to be seeing more and more people with lose implants who will have big holes in their jawbones that we will need to deal with. we pull out implants. they are a health hazard.
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Implants: Currently, implants continue to be done without biocompatibility testing, and they are often started at extraction sites where cavitations are already developing. Autoimmune diseases seem to be often aggravated or even initiated by implants.
http://www.mercola.com/2004/feb/18/dental_health.htm
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A titanium dental implant is usually made out of an alloy of this metal along with several other metals blended together. The most common alloy used has a ratio of 90 parts titanium, 6 parts aluminum and 4 parts vanadium

titanium implants are putting metal and a high milliamperage close to the brain. i have seen a woman who measured nearly 400 milliamps positive charge, and 30 neg charge who had three in her mouth; she paid $9,000 for them. the dr said she could have ran a stereo off her teeth. we removed them. our body runs on electrical impulses, so this can disrupt them (and brain waves). also, dentists and drs will tell you that bone grows to titanium implants. well, it will grow around it. but, it is a foreign object and the body will build up antibodies to it. over time, it will pull away from the bone and can become loose. if you will notice, they say implants last about 15 years or so. they are working on an implant made of diamond, supposed to be available in 5 yrs. but, it will still be a foreign object and pull away from the bone.
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Risks of Removable Appliance / Denture Bone loss Periodontal problems (irritation of gum tissue) Wear and tear on natural teeth Possible speech problems Will need adjustments regularly Comfort tends to be an issue. Block Bone Graft of my bone from Chin, Jawbone, or Hip (High Risk) Chin This procedure requires cutting through the inside of the bottom lip (he cannot cut along my gum line) and removing the bone from your chin. I do not have enough tissue in my gum area to cover the surgical site. Tissue may be used from underneath the tongue to create the flap. The surgical site needs to be covered for at least four months. There will be a scar in front of my lower teeth and this should not bother me. If you lose sensation because of nerve damage, your muscle tone you should not be affected. You will have 1-2" along the inside of my lower jaw and chin. The area may tingle and burn, but apparently You can get used to this? Also, the surgical sites may open up and need to be addressed with antibiotics, drainage, etc. This block of bone would be held in place with small titanium screws. It will take approx. 6 months to 1 year for these grafts to heal and integrate into your jawbone and the surgical sites will be kept covered with my tissue Place 2 more implants and have all 3 implants functioning separately. It will take approx. 6 months to 1 year for the implants to integrate into my jawbone. Crown all 3 implants separately. Keep yourself strong and healthy and hope that it works for a very long time. Have frequent cleanings (every 3 months). I have decided to not use bone from my face or hip. I will attempt either cadaver or artificial bone grafting.
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2.7.6. Titanium
It is generally accepted that pure titanium is extremely well tolerated by local tissues and induces neither toxic nor inflammatory reactions (Branemark et al. 1969, Toth et al. 1985, Linder et al. 1988, Pfeiffer et al. 1994). The normal tissue concentration of titanium in humans is 0.2 ppm. Around the titanium implants no clinical tissue toxicity has been observed even at local concentrations higher than 2000 ppm (Hildebrand et al. 1998). In optimal situations, titanium is able to osseointegrate with bone, thus forming a direct contact with bone at the light microscopy level (Branemark et al. 1969). The good bone contact may be due to the ability of titanium to form a Ca-P rich layer on its surface (Hanawa 1991). Titanium is bacteriostatic (Elagli et al. 1992) and does not significantly activate or inhibit different enzyme systems specific to toxic reactions, e.g. β - glucuronidase, lactate dehydrogenase, glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase and acid phosphatase (Elagli et al. 1995). The good biocompatibility and corrosion resistance are due to the naturally forming stable titanium oxide (TiO2) film on titanium surfaces (Zitter et al. 1987, Kasemo et al. 1991).

Particles from titanium arise from the passivation layer of the implant, but they are not titanium ions, but mostly insoluble titanium oxides or suboxides, which are recognized to be biologically inert. Indeed, the passivation layer is immediately reformed after abrasion because of the high oxidizability of titanium. This behavior protects the alloy and prevents the formation of chemical compounds other than oxides (Hildebrand et al. 1998). Tissue discoloration due to titanium oxide particles is sometimes seen around pure titanium implants, but this seems to have no clinical consequences (Onodera et al. 1993, Rosenberg et al. 1993). Experiments with laboratory animals and some limited analyses of human tissues have also revealed evidence of titanium release into distant tissues (Schliephake et al. 1993, Jorgenson et al. 1997).

Wear particles produced by abrasion appear especially in the vicinity of articular prostheses and implants with certain mobility, e.g. uncemented total hip replacements. These particles may induce multiple tissue reactions, including osteolysis, degradation of normal bone structure, severe macrophagic reactions, granuloma, fibrotic capsules and chronic inflammation, which may cause destabilization and loosening of prostheses and implants (Santavirta et al. 1991, Santavirta et al. 1993, Rubash et al. 1998). Particle size and composition are of essential importance in that process. Deleterious reactions have been reported with Ti-6Al-4V based prostheses (Nasser et al. 1990, Rubash et al. 1998), but not with pure titanium implants.

In vitro, pure titanium particles have also been shown to have some effects on cells. Low concentrations may stimulate fibroblast proliferation, while high concentrations may be toxic. At high particle concentrations, titanium caused a decrease in proteolytic and collagenolytic activity in the culture medium. Titanium also elevated the lysosomal enzyme marker, hexosaminidase, except at high concentrations (Maloney et al. 1993).

J Bone Joint Surg Br. 2005 May ;87:628-31 15855362
Metal ion levels after metal-on-metal proximal femoral replacements: a 30-year follow-up.
[My paper] E Dunstan , A P Sanghrajka , S Tilley , P Unwin , G Blunn , S R Cannon , T W R Briggs
Metal-on-metal hip bearings are being implanted into younger patients. The consequence of elevated levels of potentially carcinogenic metal ions is therefore a cause for concern. We have determined the levels of cobalt (Co), chromium (Cr), titanium (Ti) and vanadium (Va) in the urine and whole blood of patients who had had metal-on-metal and metal-on-polyethylene articulations in situ for more than 30 years. We compared these with each other and with the levels for a control group of subjects.We found significantly elevated levels of whole blood Ti, Va and urinary Cr in all arthroplasty groups. The whole blood and urine levels of Co were grossly elevated, by a factor of 50 and 300 times respectively in patients with loose metal-on-metal articulations when compared with the control group. Stable metal-on-metal articulations showed much lower levels. Elevated levels of whole blood or urinary Co may be useful in identifying metal-on-metal articulations which are loose.
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Zirconium dioxide implants are supposed to be the wave of the future. They are still putting a foreign body into the jaw and the immune system will launch an immune response, so they will still loosen over time (15 to 20 years) from that. Granted, it appears to be better than titanium and they are saying it is a substitute for metal implants, but with the immune response, it isn't worth it to me.
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Properties

The German chemist M. H. Klaproth discovered zirconium dioxide in 1789 although this "miracle material" with its outstanding properties has only been re-discovered in the last few decades. For instance, various types of zirconium dioxide have been introduced to dentistry as a substitute for metal. This material is attractive because of its extraordinary properties such as high flexural strength (in excess of 1,000 MPa), hardness (1,200 – 1,400 Vickers) and Weibull modulus (10-12). Yttrium partially stabilises zirconium oxide to provide these positive properties. Adding aluminium oxide boosts the flexural strength of the zirconium dioxide alloy once again. Zirconium dioxide is used for manufacturing kitchen knives, industrial cutting tools and components under great thermomechanic stress in the automobile and aircraft industry. However, it is not only very strong, it is also biocompatible so that zirconium dioxide is also used in medicine (hearing devices and artificial fingers and hips) and dentistry (pins, crowns, bridges and implants). The fact that zirconium dioxide has the same colour as teeth along with its biotechnical characteristics mean it is used for manufacturing biocompatible, high-quality and aesthetic tooth and implant reconstructions. There have only been animal experiments and laboratory examinations on applying dental zirconium oxide implants to date, meaning no long-term data exists on the clinical application of these implants.

Manufacturing Zirconium Dioxide

The mineral zirconium (ZrSiO4) is the main raw material for zirconium dioxide while melting it with coke and lime (reducing the SiO2) produces ZrO2 for industrial uses. Since extremely pure constituents have to be used for producing high-performance ceramics, special ways to synthesise it have been developed for high-purity ZrO2. This includes production with reactions in molten salts, reactions in the gaseous phase, hydrothermal powder synthesis and the sol-gel process. Gaseous phase and sol-gel process production provides powder at very small particle sizes ranging from 0.01 to 0.10 µm. This powder is then mixed with additives to create what are known as green bodies with film casting, slip casting or drying pressing. We distinguish additives such as sintering additives (that have a specific effect on the sintering behaviour and the properties of finished ceramics) and auxiliary materials that facilitate shaping. While the sintering additives stay in the ceramics, all residues of the auxiliary materials (mostly slightly volatile organic compounds along with water) are removed from the moulded component before the sintering process. The green body is passed into the raw product by sintering and ground or polished depending upon use. The sintering process can be carried out at atmospheric pressure and under high pressure and it is only with the sintering process that the moulded components receive their actual properties. The ceramic powder particles are compressed by lowering the specific surface with temperature-dependant diffusion processes with alternating components of surface, particle size grading and volume diffusion. If solid body diffusion is too slow, sintering can also be carried out with a liquid phase or under pressure, the latter being called hot pressing or hot isostatic pressing (the HIP process). The velocity of solid body diffusion can be boosted with the right selection of sintering additives. A great deal of research needs to be done here since the high sintering temperatures (in excess of 1,200° C) and manufacturing under pressure causes production costs for ceramic components to shoot up. Along with providing systematic clarification of the impact that additives have on the sintering process, there are also attempts to enhance power transmission onto ceramic components by coupling in microwaves for lowering sintering temperatures.

ZrO2 Ceramics

The properties of ZrO2 ceramics substantially pivot on the chemical composition of the material and the manufacturing process. We distinguish fully stabilised ZrO2 (FSZ „fully stabilized zirconia“) and partially stabilised ZrO2 (PSZ „partially stabilized zirconia“). It can be partially stabilised by adding 3-6% CaO, MgO or Y2O3 and depending upon the conditions of manufacturing this stabilises the cubic, tetragonal or monocline modification. Partially stabilised ZrO2 demonstrates high thermal fatigue resistance, meaning it fills the bill for use as high-temperature mechanoceramics. Adding 10-15% CaO, MgO or Y2O3 also allows cubic modification of the zirconium dioxide from absolute zero to the solidus (FSZ) and the ceramic material is thermally and mechanically stable to a temperature of 2,600°. However, its low caloric conductivity and higher thermal expansion factor as compared with partially stabilised ZrO2 mean that the thermal fatigue resistance of the fully stabilised zirconium dioxide is lower. The zirconium dioxide that is suited to use as an implant has the following composition: 95% ZrO2 + 5% Y2O3.