If you’ve been following along with my dental implant journey, you know that I had surgery for zygomatic implants and mandibular dental implants Friday, October 5th, 2018 at UIC .
The Journey to Dental Implants – Part 5
First Post-Op Visit
Nobel Biocare’s NobelZygoma implants were used on upper jaw and the
Nobel Biocare All-in-4 implants were used on my lower jaw. Both types of implants allow for immediate loading, so I was able to leave clinic with temporary fixed plates with the goal to start work on the permanent fixed plates once the bone had healed around the implants sufficiently to allow for impressions to be made, etc.
I returned to clinic on January 4th, which was just one day shy of being three months post-op.
In clinic, Dr. Stanford removed both the upper and lower fixed dentures. I was fortunate in that Dr. Stanford was able to modify my previous existing removable dentures to use as temporary fixed dentures while my mouth healed from surgery.
Of course, I had take a picture of the dentures and the teeny tiny screws on the work surface in the office. Those teeny tiny screws are $35 each! It takes 8 of them to hold my teeth in place.
Unfortunately, the gum tissues are not firming up the way they should after surgery. In a typical patient, the gum tissue is stippled around their teeth (which means there are microscopic elevations in the tissue, and it goes from softer tissue to firmer tissue around the tooth or implant). The hope with dental implants is that the tissue would firm up in a similar fashion.
That said, in AEC syndrome, the healing process can be slower than typical because the syndrome affects the production of protein in the basement membrane of the skin as well as collagen formation, both of which are essential to healing.
Dr. Miloro took me down to the oral surgery clinic and revised the gum tissue (which is code for trimmed and cauterized the tissue on the upper and lower gums). The hope is that the cauterization will cause the tissue to scar and firm up. They were unable to take impressions for the final denture this trip, as the tissue is just too soft and has no discernible landmarks.
I’ll return to clinic in another month or so. Hopefully the tissues will have firmed up and be stable enough to take impressions.
Haven’t had a chance to read the other posts in this journey? You can find them all in the Dental Implants tab. I also have a Dental Implant Journey Facebook Group, where I post more photos (some of them are more graphic).
