Painless Surgery

Mrs. Chang, in her late 60s, has pain in the top left part of her mouth when she chews.  Everything looks fine in the area superficially (Fig.1).  She experiences severe pain when one of the teeth is found to be split (Fig.2).  The crack also extends deep underneath the gums.  So the tooth cannot be saved.

After local anesthesia, the tooth is extracted without pain.  An implant is immediately placed in the inner half of the socket (Fig.3 I); the other half of the socket is packed with bone powder and special membrane (Fig.3 B).  Then a temporary crown (Fig.4 T) is seated on the top of the implant and closes the socket completely.  When anesthesia is wearing off, Mrs. Chang does not feel any pain.  The whole procedure is called immediate implant and immediate restoration.  In 2-4 months, the patient is going to have a new permanent crown.  There will be no more surgery.

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Xin Wei, DDS, PhD, MS 1st edition 09/09/2015, last revision 09/09/2015