NWR: Toothless and nervous about an implant

stellaella · December 2010

Today wasn't so hot.

I took a nasty fall down some stairs and knocked out my front tooth. If anyone has seen that scene in Sex and the City where Natasha chases Carrie down the stairs and then face plants, that's exactly what happened. My tooth came out, and I went for an emergency appointment to my dentist.

The dentist said the tooth can't be put back in, and I'm going to have to have an implant done in February when the wound heals. For now I'm missing my front tooth, but on Tuesday my partial denture will be ready so at least it's only a few days of looking silly.

My main concern is the implant. I'm terrified of surgery, and as vain as this sounds, I'm worried about how I will look like at my wedding in April. My dentist said that because it's a front tooth, I cannot keep the partial - I have to get an implant, and the implant needs to be done before the wedding because of issues with tissue healing and my jaw bone etc.

Has anyone had an implant done before? I'm so nervous my new tooth will be a different color, or I'll be swollen and won't be able to speak properly.

golden1215 · December 2010

both of my front two teeth and crowns, zipper accident in HS (dont ask) and I love my smile. No worries!

only word of advice is if you want all of your teeth whiter bleach them now so your front one(s) match- thats what I did.

chocoholic4life · December 2010

I have two implants, and they match my teeth perfectly. My dentist held up the different colors until we both agreed on one that matched. They look like real teeth, and no one can tell. I've had them for a few years, and they have not worn down at all. Make sure you see the color of the material first, and you shouldn't have trouble with matching.

Another word of advice is that you can't change the color once it is in (unless you replace the crown $$$). If you want your teeth whiter, make sure you whiten before selecting the color of the implant crown so that it doesn't look yellower than the rest of your teeth.

You will also have to keep up with the whitening if you don't want it to stick out later on. I got my implants when I was 19, and I wish I would have thought to whiten first. Now if I whiten my teeth, they stick out like a sore thumb.

chocoholic4life · December 2010

and don't worry about the surgery. It takes a little while to heal, but I don't remember it hurting much at all.

tidetravel · December 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_nwr-toothless-nervous-implant?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:bd66c945-7d30-4957-bd03-cc36ea73caaaPost:fa182987-5236-4a62-a92b-2c212981d97d">NWR: Toothless and nervous about an implant</a>:
[QUOTE]Today wasn't so hot. I took a nasty fall down some stairs and knocked out my front tooth. If anyone has seen that scene in Sex and the City where Natasha chases Carrie down the stairs and then face plants, that's exactly what happened. My tooth came out, and I went for an emergency appointment to my dentist. The dentist said the tooth can't be put back in, and I'm going to have to have an implant done in February when the wound heals. For now I'm missing my front tooth, but on Tuesday my partial denture will be ready so at least it's only a few days of looking silly. My main concern is the implant. I'm terrified of surgery, and as vain as this sounds,<strong> I'm worried about how I will look like at my wedding in April.</strong> My dentist said that because it's a front tooth, I cannot keep the partial - I have to get an implant, and the implant needs to be done before the wedding because of issues with tissue healing and my jaw bone etc. Has anyone had an implant done before? <strong>I'm so nervous my new tooth will be a different color, or I'll be swollen and won't be able to speak properly</strong>.
Posted by stellaella[/QUOTE]

If you're scared of surgery, because it's surgery, that I can understand that, however, your worries are kind of silly. Unless you have a magical time machine, you can't go back and NOT fall down the stairs. Your choices as they stand now, are: fake tooth in pictures or no tooth. Which do you think will look better?

ETA: in the event that for some reason, you CAN tell there's a difference in the photos, there is this magical computer program called photoshop.

Mrs.B6302007 · December 2010

A friend of mine had both of her eye teeth implanted last year. She did just fine with the surgery and her teeth look great - very natural.

Mrs.B6302007 · December 2010

BTW, sorry about the accident. That scene from SATC was exactly what I pictured while reading your first sentence.

sister2groom · December 2010

I can't imagine you still being swollen in April from a February tooth implant, just make sure to keep your mouth really clean until your surgery so there are no delays (and then obviously post-surgery so there are no infections).

TurtlesAllTheWayDown · December 2010

I have an implant. It's one of my eye teeth. It actually hurt less than getting my wisdom teeth out, which is odd, considering it's basically a big screw in your jaw. I attribute it to the fact that they were filling the hole in rather than leaving a big gaping hole in my mouth. I also had to have an abscess drained and have a bone graft. It looks awesome though. The tooth they replaced had had 2 root canals before and was tiny and... failing. They did the implant, put veneers on my other 3 front teeth, and they look great. I HAD some bonding on all 4 teeth that was chipped and stained. I had everything done about 2 years before my wedding and I'm so glad I did.

stellaella · December 2010

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_nwr-toothless-nervous-implant?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:bd66c945-7d30-4957-bd03-cc36ea73caaaPost:5f16e6b8-fb16-4cd5-afd8-9ad0d9c24de8">Re: NWR: Toothless and nervous about an implant</a>:
[QUOTE]I have an implant. It's one of my eye teeth. <strong>It actually hurt less than getting my wisdom teeth out, which is odd, considering it's basically a big screw in your jaw</strong>. I attribute it to the fact that they were filling the hole in rather than leaving a big gaping hole in my mouth. I also had to have an abscess drained and have a bone graft. It looks awesome though. The tooth they replaced had had 2 root canals before and was tiny and... failing. They did the implant, put veneers on my other 3 front teeth, and they look great. I HAD some bonding on all 4 teeth that was chipped and stained. I had everything done about 2 years before my wedding and I'm so glad I did.
Posted by msmerymac[/QUOTE]

<div>Thanks for that. I have an irrational fear of surgery, and this really eased my nerves. </div><div>
</div><div>Thanks to everyone for the advice- I didn't realize how many people have implants!</div>

katiewhompus · December 2010

You will be just fine so try to relax.
H has two caps (crowns? veneers? something) on both of his front teeth. The first time he knocked them out while playing street hockey, then walked into a forklift about 8 years later and knocked them out again. There is a slight color mismatch for about the first few weeks but then you won't even notice it. If anything I tease him because his teeth are so perfect looking even though he's a smoker.

This is a pic of H and a friend of ours about 6 months after he got his front teeth replaced. It's a bad pic because they are both quite drunk, but it's the only tooth shot I can find of him. Yes I tease him that he looks quite metro in this pic.

LauraT25 · December 2010

I'm a little late to this but I have two implants and here's what I have to add:

1. The surgery was in three parts for me, and took 6 months. So I'm not sure whether you'll have your permanent implants by the wedding or not, but even my temporaries looked really good. An important part of getting matching impants is seeing a good oral surgeon, or someone who outsources the temps to someone reputable. If you trust your dentist, or can get recommendations from people you know, you should be fine.

2. Ditto the others about whitening beforehand, or not at all.

3. My surgery hurt a LOT. I'm sure it depends on the person, what you're getting done, etc, but I wouldn't go into it thinking it won't hurt. Even with that, though, swelling was pretty minimal and my speech wasn't affected and it wouldn't have looked weird in pictures. The pain only lasted a week or so after each procedure.

All of that being said, the surgery was really uneventful, and since I had painkillers the pain was bearable. The biggest issue was probably having to eat mushy, room temperature foods for so long. Again, your experience might be different - I needed a bone graft and I think that's where most of the pain came from.

Best of luck!

saschaduran · December 2010

I have a $9000 tooth next to my front tooth. It is a very long story but I love to tell it.

It was a tooth that grew in with no enamel as a child. I had a plastic cap on it for my childhood and early adulthood. Then one late night in Miami, while talking to a shirtless guy at a rave and chewing on a glowstick (don't ask) my tooth shot out of my mouth and hit the guy in the chest. I ended up at an emergency dentist on a Sunday Memorial Day weekend getting a temporary. He was in an office in the projects and wore a blood stained jacket and had 1950s drills attached to the ceiling through ropes.

When I got back home my dentist found he had drilled my tooth down so small I could not get a permanent crown. So I had to get a root canal and porcelain crown. A year later my tooth broke above the gum line and was loose. So I had to get the implant. I wore the fake tooth with a retainer. Could not eat...tooth did not reach my gum line and there was a huge gap. Had to wear that a few months...horrible. Finally got the implant with the temporary tooth. Told to get the porcelain crown a month later but I moved to Vegas and waited 6 months. Then my gum tissue started dying around the tooth so I had to get gum grafting surgery where they took a slice from the roof of my mouth and sewed it on with tons of aqua thread. My face swelled up like the elephant man. Very painful. Then I go the porcelain crown and it looks pretty good. I am neurotic about my teeth so I think there is still darkness at the gum line but people tell me I have beautiful teeth.

The implant surgery was not painful during, but sore after, but no big deal. Swelling lasted less than a week, and only obvious for a couple days.

I am eventually going to get 3 veneers in front so the front 4 teeth match perfectly. My front tooth also grew in with a lot of missing enamel and is almost all bonding. I need to get a new tooth but want my 2 front teeth to be the same, so I totally understand. So I will just get 3 veneers so they all match, when I am up to spending another $5000.

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