I pulled into the parking and saw an open spot. I parked my car. Today’s the day. It’s time to fill up that hole in my mouth.
I walked into the oral surgeon’s office, and the lady at the front checked me in. “We’ll call you in for your x-ray in a bit.”
Minutes later, the lady called my name. She took me to this machine with a chair, and had me put down all my stuff and take off my glasses. I sat under the machine and she used a band to hold my head in place. The machine took an x-ray of my whole head.
The lady took me to a room to wait for the oral surgeon. I didn’t have to wait long. The oral surgeon came in, said that the location where I had my tooth extraction healed very well, and asked if I was ready for the dental implant. I pulled up my list of questions and asked them until I got an answer to each of my questions.
The lady came back to take me to the room where the procedure will be. It was the same room as last time. I put my stuff to the side and laid on the chair. The lady took my blood pressure and proceeded to apply some numbing thing to my gums. The oral surgeon then poked my gums a few times with a needle.
I laid as still as I could while the oral surgeon did her thing. The stick that sucks up blood and saliva was running, the sound of the drill was going, and the oral surgeon was communicating with her assistant. I didn’t pay much attention until I heard some extra quiet talking. “…it’s a challenge…yeah…can’t fit…small…” What are they saying???
She took out the piece of thing that was helping hold my mouth open, and said, “Can you open your mouth bigger?”
I opened my mouth as big as possible. “Open bigger!”
Bigger? I can’t. My mouth is already open as big as possible!
“Can you move your jaw?”
I moved my jaw, but I guess it wasn’t enough. The oral surgeon took off her mask and showed me how to move my jaw. I tried to replicate it. “Can you move it more?”
Nope. I moved it as much as possible. What is she trying to do?
The oral surgeon walked out and then came back. The assistant squeezed my cheek as I kept my mouth open as big as possible. “Relax…,” the oral surgeon said.
How can I relax while stretching my mouth open as big as I could?
After some time, everything seemed to be sorted out.
“…stable…not moving…”
The oral surgeon started doing the stitches, and the assistant wiped my face clean. The assistant took me to take another x-ray, then brought me back to the first room.
I asked the assistant if everything went okay. She said my mouth is small, so it was hard to fit in the drill. WHAT?! Then how did they end up fitting it in?? Oh dear…
The oral surgeon came in to look at the x-ray. I asked her if my mouth was too small, and she said that even with the smallest screw, they weren’t able to fit in the drill because the location was so far back. It was a challenge, but they did it!
So how did they end up fitting it…?
Hopefully, this implant will last for many, many, many years. We shall see how it performs!