On Thursday (6.2.11) Tim had oral surgery at the UAB (University of Alabama at Birmingham) Dental School. We arrived at the clinic around 8AM Central Time. Once the paperwork was filled out, Tim was seen by a dental student around 10:00. They set up an appointment for oral surgery for 1:00 in the afternoon.
Tim was on time, however the oral surgeon was not. He ended up waiting an hour before he was seen. Earlier in the morning the dentist had told Tim that he had two options regarding pain management-- local anesthesia or an iv. After talking about the two choices Tim opted for the local anesthesia. Now that he has been through it, I think if he had to do it over again he'd opt for the iv.
For an hour and a half, two men worked on Tim's mouth. They extracted the root (which was no easy feat), inserted the implant screw where the root had been, packed the remaining space around the screw with bone (it was either bovine, sheep, or cadaver bone), and then stitched up the wound. Accomplishing all of this in one surgery will save Tim four months down the road (typically, a tooth implant process lasts 8-12 months because of the healing time between procedures). He keeps reminding himself of that, because at the time it wasn't very reassuring.
His mouth and face were swollen and quite tender, but he has said that the pain is lessening. He will go back to the UAB Dental School for a follow up appointment in a few weeks. The way they described it to Tim, there aren't many people who have the root extracted AND get the implant screw in the same procedure. Since his case is unique, they want to make sure the implant is successful and that the antibiotic is warding off all infection.
By Christmas Tim should have both of his front teeth, and I'm sure he'll be sure to smile big and smile often... as he will have gone through quite a bit to maintain that smile!
-Erin
