Your Pathway Through The Centre
If you decide to have treatment at The Implant Centre we would like to help show you what to expect at each stage of treatment. The following pages are intended as a guide as not all stages are required and indeed some cases may be substantially more complex.
You will be contacted by phone once we have received your referral to arrange a convenient date and time for you to attend for an assessment. Before you attend for your first visit we will send you a confirmation letter with your appointment date and time and a map with detailed directions. There is parking available at the front of the building for up to 60 minutes and other parking available for longer periods.
Your Initial Assessment
This appointment involves very careful assessment of your individual case.
It usually takes one hour and involves meeting the team at the centre following by detailed discussion of your medical (our surgeons are qualified doctors) and dental history and your aims for treatment. We will then under take a very careful and detailed examination of your mouth, including an oral health and cancer screen.
You will have initial x-rays as required so we can then begin the process of assessing the bone volume available. At this stage we can often advise you on your suitability for implants and begin the detailed discussion of treatment available to you, how implants work and the stages involved.
More complex cases sometimes require more time and even for you to be seen by more than one clinician. We may need to make some models of your teeth and to consider further investigations such as detailed 3D imaging prior to making any decisions. All the costs involved with this will be explained to you.
Once planning is complete you will be sent a comprehensive treatment plan with all the explanations again, this helps reiterate the information you were given during your initial assessment.
Your Implant Surgery - Stage One
This is the appointment everybody is frightened about, but is rarely as bad as you imagine! The actual surgery time is only about fifteen minutes although you will be booked in for an hour to allow for further discussion and planning to put you at ease.
The implant surgery is carried out extremely carefully and precisely, and while it is a surgical procedure most people say it is far less traumatic than having a root treatment or tooth extraction. We carry out the surgery as quickly, but as safely as possible. This expertise allows for remarkably little discomfort following treatment.
Simple painkillers (Paracetamol, Ibuprofen) are all that is required following implant placement for most cases. The surgery does involve some drilling but it is not the whining drill or the vibrating slow drill many people associate with dentistry. It is carried out extremely carefully and we will discuss this with you as treatment progresses
At the end of the procedure you may have some stitches which dissolve on their own. If they are causing you annoyance or discomfort we will obviously remove them for you.
If the gap where the implant is placed is visible we will then place and adjust a temporary tooth for you. You need never have a gap at any stage of treatment if you do not wish.
You will be given a detailed instruction sheet at the end of your appointment on how to maintain and clean your mouth following surgery. We will also discuss any pain relief or any antibiotics that may be required at this stage.
Your Implant Surgery – Stage Two
Once the implants are placed, they will need to be left for at least
eight weeks to allow your bone to completely fuse with the implant.
After this, the implants can be uncovered and a healing cap is attached. This procedure is very quick and normally straight forward, occasionally needing just a little local anaesthetic to make you numb.
Sometimes, healing caps can be placed at the same time as your implant, thus making your whole implant experience even easier.
Despite an exceptionally high success rate (96%), in some cases when we uncover the implant we will find that the bone hasn't fused and will have to replace it. In most cases replacement will be simple, successful and free of charge.
Making your Crowns or Bridges on the Implants - Stage Three
The rest of implant dentistry is much like all dentistry you would have experienced in the past. You will be seen over two to three appointments
to have impressions taken of your teeth and the positions of the implants.
These appointments are spread out over a few weeks to allow for your gums to heal, and to allow our laboratory time to precisely make your new crowns.
We take extreme care in all of these phases to make sure everything is as accurate as possible. We also have specialist machines to digitally photograph and take shades of your adjacent teeth so that these crowns can be matched perfectly.
Once the crowns are fitted we will review you a few weeks later to make sure that the final outcome is what you had expected and that everything is healing well.
Follow up and Maintenance
It is absolutely vital that implants are maintained very carefully by yourself and followed up by specialists.
At the end of your treatment it is important that you attend regular reviews at The Implant Centre.
This is because there are cases where the bone can deteriorate around implants over a longer term we therefore need to see you on a six month and then annual basis to take x-rays, check the tooth and implant, take photographs, and clean as necessary. All of this treatment is carried out without charge if you undertake our long term Implant Care Plan.
