As dental technology evolves, better dental care becomes more accessible and affordable. Treatments that seemed reserved for the wealthy 20 years ago are now more common. Dental sinus lifts are an example of a more accessible type of treatment.
More and more people are needing a sinus lift, so it’s good to have information available about what to expect.
Who Would Benefit?
A sinus lift is a procedure where the surgeon increases the amount of bone in the upper jaw. If you need dental implants but lack support in the jawbone, you may need this lift. The sinus must be moved to make space for the graft. Usually, it takes six months for this graft to settle before moving on to implants.
Trying to get implants without enough bone support makes the replacements more likely to fail. They can also perforate the sinus membrane.
How Is It Done?
Several kinds of materials are available to act as bone matter. The best material is a patient’s own bones. Otherwise, donor material will work. The technicians must prepare the material before surgery day. If you’re using your own bone matter, it’s usually taken from the tibia or hip ahead of time.
As for the actual procedure, the dentist makes an incision in the gums, then exposes the jawbone. This allows them to cut into the hole, gently nudging the sinus upwards. From there, they’ll pack the bone graft material and stitch the gums shut.
For this procedure, you can have local or general anesthesia, or either nitrous oxide sedation or IV sedation. Either way, the procedure lasts 90 minutes to 2 hours.
How Much Does it Cost?
On average, a sinus lift costs between $1,500 to $2,500 per side, meaning you may pay up to $5,000 if you need to lift both sides. Because it’s a dental procedure, standard health insurance likely will not cover it.
If you need to take antibiotics before surgery, the surgeon will prescribe them. During recovery, you may need prescription-strength pain medication and an antihistamine. These are all costs that aren’t included with the original quote.
Finally, after several months to one year, you should have no problem getting your dental implants. These will cost up to $3,000 each.
What Are The Risks?
The biggest risk associated with a sinus dental lift is that membrane could tear. If this happens during the surgery, you’ll either need a patch placed over it or to have the tear stitched. If this doesn’t work, the surgeon might need to wait until the hole has time to heal before resuming.
After the membrane heals, the surgeon can attempt the lift once again. It takes a few months for a torn sinus membrane to heal. Fortunately, it will likely grow back thicker and stronger, increasing the odds of success. Of course, there are other factors involved.
Any surgical procedure carries the risk of infection but is rarely happens with lifts.
Rarely, the bone won’t integrate with the graft material, never allowing the area to gain a blood supply. If this happens, there won’t be any live bone to support any implants, causing them to fail if installed. If your implants fail, you can repeat the dental lift procedure.
Sinus Lift Recovery
Following the procedure, the dentist will likely have you bite down on a gauze pad. This gently applies enough pressure to stop the bleeding.
Change the gauze pad once an hour. Expect the gauze to become red, but seek help if the area won’t slow bleeding. Ice packs can help reduce the swelling.
Remember that you need the blood clot to form and remain to keep the bleeding at bay. That means you don’t want to smoke, rinse your mouth excessively, or blow your nose for one week.
It seems like most people who need extensive dental work treatment end up making appointments all over town. This can’t be easy on your schedule, not to mention confusing and somewhat intimidating. Each office has its own system, staff members, and reputation.
No more. Now everything you need is available under just one roof in Phoenix. Our team at Dental Specialty Associates is on standby, ready to take your call! We’re ready to answer your questions or schedule a consultation for your dental needs.
If you are considering getting a dental implant to replace a missing tooth or teeth, a ridge augmentation or otherwise known as ridge preservation may be required first. Having a ridge preservation procedure in order to get a dental implant can be a life-changing decision. Making your smile whole again (or for the first time) can improve several aspects of your life.
Before the introduction of ridge preservation, you would not be able to get a dental implant because the jawbone would be too compromised to be able to support it. Thanks to modern-day dental technology, ridge preservation has made it possible to rebuild that bone enough to be able to make dental implants a viable option.
What Is It?
Ridge preservation is a procedure that helps to reconstruct or preserve the natural shape of your jaw and gums. The shape and structure of the jaw may have been lost from certain oral conditions, trauma to the jaw or face, or from a tooth extraction. The base that the natural tooth roots are anchored into is a jawbone extension that is called your alveolar ridge.
With an unstable and deteriorated alveolar ridge, there is not enough bone for a dental implant to be secured into. Implants require the alveolar ridge to be an adequate height and width to successfully hold a dental implant in place without causing damage. Ridge preservation is a way to make the alveolar ridge whole and healthy again.
Who Needs A Ridge Augmentation?
When you lose a tooth, have a tooth extracted, or have a damaged tooth that you avoid placing pressure on, your body begins to reabsorb the bone material that lies underneath that tooth. This underlying bone deteriorates rather quickly, and around a fourth of the bone tissues that were present will be absorbed within a year from when the tooth was lost or pulled. You may need ridge preservation if you have waited too long after the extraction or tooth loss to get an implant done.
In other cases, the bone may already be thin around your tooth prior to losing it or having it extracted. Some individuals have a naturally weak outer wall of the alveolar ridge and may need ridge preservation for that reason. In addition, those who have suffered from alveolar bone loss due to gum disease, periodontal disease, jaw injury, or face injury may need ridge preservation to reconstitute the natural contours of the facial structure.
About The Procedure
The procedure to have ridge preservation is generally minimally invasive and painless. A local anesthetic is used to ensure that the areas that will be worked on are numb. A small incision is then made in your gum in order to gain access to the bone. Some sort of bone graft material is then attached to the exposed bone. Once that is finished, your gums are sutured to close up the tissue of your gum. There are special proteins and collagen that are infused into the bone material that will stimulate bone growth. Your new bone growth will eventually replace the graft material that is absorbed by the body.
Graft Material Options
The bone graft material can be made with a number of different methods. The bone can be a section of bone that comes from another part of your body. If this is the method used, local anesthesia and sedation will usually be used in order to obtain that piece of bone. Another option for bone graft material is bone of which has been harvested from a cadaver or another donor that is referred to as an allograft.
Another option utilized for bone graft material is called a xenograft which is bone taken from an animal, which would usually be a cow. The last type of bone graft material that can be used for ridge preservation is one that is synthetically produced bone graft that is made in a laboratory called alloplast. Any bone that has been harvested from an animal or another human is completely disinfected so that no bacteria or disease can be passed on to you upon the use of the bone graft.
About Recovery
Once the procedure is complete, you will get detailed instructions on how to care for the site until the new bone is regenerated. It can take the bone anywhere from a couple of weeks to nine months to grow and heal enough to be able to support the placement of dental implants. The amount of time this takes depends on the status of your existing bone and the extent of your bone graft. There are usually restrictions on eating certain foods during this time.
You may be provided with or recommended to use an antiseptic mouthwash to help reduce the risk of developing an infection at the incision site. You may also be given a round of antibiotics to take as a precaution. You may experience postoperative pain and will be given medication to help alleviate it for the first week. After seven days the pain should be reduced dramatically or gone.
Facial trauma, referred to by doctors as maxillofacial trauma, is arguably one of the most terrifying classifications of injury. With our sense of smell, vision, taste, hearing, and cognitive function all residing above the neckline, facial trauma can often cause injuries so severe that one or more of our most basic senses is painfully battered, partially impaired, or knocked offline completely. There are countless ways that facial trauma can occur, with the most common causes being violence, sports injuries, car accidents, motorcycle accidents, work accidents, warfare, and many others.
The Types of Injuries and Their Symptoms
Maxillofacial trauma can cause a long list of oftentimes horrifying injuries. Some of these include buns, moderate to severe lacerations, bruises, facial bone breaks or fractures, nasal fractures, jaw fractures, eye injuries, loss of teeth, and more. The severity of such injuries will almost always depend on the cause of the damage. With car and motorcycle accidents the facial injuries can easily be severe enough to be fatal, with multiple skull fractures, vision loss, severe lacerations, and blunt force trauma all being quite common. With sports injuries, the trauma is usually less severe and typically only includes nasal fractures, bruising, minor lacerations, and moderate bone fractures.
The Top 5 Types of Face Trauma and How Each is Typically Treated
1. Facial Lacerations
Cuts on the face are one of the most common forms of facial injury. Due to the fact that there are many blood vessels on the face, these cuts can have a tendency to bleed quite profusely.
Treatment: If the laceration is small and not particularly deep, then it will probably be treated with a bandaid. If the cut is moderately deep then possible treatment would be a butterfly stitch, which is a bandaid meant to hold the cut closed. If the laceration is severe then it will almost certainly require stitches, staples, or medical glue to seal it closed.
2. Jaw Fractures or Breaks
Typically common in sports, automobile, and motorcycle accidents, jaw breaks, and fractures can be quite traumatic to anyone unfortunate enough to suffer such an injury. In addition to breaks and fractures, jaws can also be dislocated from the jaw joints, especially if the injury is extremely forceful such as in a motorcycle, football, or boxing accident.
Treatment: Jaw fractures are typically left to heal on their own, with some pain medications usually prescribed to the patient. Jaw breaks, on the other hand, typically require surgery to treat, procedures that often include wiring the break together and immobilizing the jaw completely to allow healing to occur. Jaw dislocations are treated by either manually putting the jaw back into place, or in cases where the joint is damaged, surgery is often required to put the bone back into its proper location.
3. Nasal Fractures
A common injury of sporting and automobile accidents, nasal fractures can be extremely painful injuries. They typically cause a profuse amount of blood loss and can affect a person’s ability to breathe or even see clearly. The fracture can be hidden beneath the nasal skin, or it can often include a compound fracture where the skin rips opens and exposes the cartilage underneath.
Treatment: The main treatment priority for a nasal fracture is to ensure that the bleeding stops. If a laceration occurs at the spot where the nasal fracture occurred then the person may need to have stitches to seal up the wound. If the fracture has caused any misalignment of the nasal bridge then a doctor may need to manually reset the position of it, a treatment option that can be extremely painful to endure.
4. Eye Injuries
Sport and work-related accidents are typically the main cause of eye injuries. Typically they only involve bruising around the tissue of the eye socket, however, they can severe enough that a person’s vision is damaged.
Treatment: Light to moderate eye injuries that only involve bruising of the soft tissue around the eye socket are typically treated with hot and cold packs. These hot and cold packs will reduce any swelling and minimize the inevitable bruising. Moderate to severe injuries to the eyes themselves will need to be immediately and thoroughly investigated by an optometrist in order to ensure that permanent loss of vision has not occurred.
5. Knocked Out Teeth
Another one of the most common forms of facial injury is knocked out teeth. Whether this is caused by a car accident or sports injury, losing one or several teeth in an accident can be quite traumatic.
Treatment: Stopping the bleeding and preventing infection is the first two treatment priorities when it comes to the loss of teeth. Once moderate healing has started, a dentist or dental surgeon will likely recommend installing tooth implants into the places where the original teeth were knocked out.
Most people can’t even imagine losing a tooth as an adult, but the reality is that dental injuries to permanent teeth happen all of the time. If something has happened and you have a cracked tooth or a broken tooth, rest assured that there are a variety of modern dental solutions that can restore your smile. A common scenario is a blow to the mouth while engaging in a sporting activity that results in a tooth that’s broken or cracked. Regardless of how the problem occurred, it’s important to get the problem taken care of right away.
The first thing that you’ll want to do is assess whether you have a head injury requiring immediate medical attention, which is the priority. Once you’re certain that there are no emergency health issues, you’ll want to see a dentist as soon as possible. Below are some of the options for fixing a tooth that’s broken or cracked.
Fixing A Broken Tooth
Choosing the right treatment for a tooth that’s broken is contingent upon how much of the tooth broke off. The most common causes are not considered an emergency because only a small portion of the tooth is gone and the tooth can be repaired with dental bonding. This is a relatively simple process that involves restoring the shape of your tooth with a material that’s tooth-colored. Dental bonding is a common procedure that takes very little time. Part of the reason why dental bonding is so popular is that the bonding material matches the color of your teeth and usually looks wonderful. Another option for when a relatively small piece of your tooth is broken is porcelain veneers. Porcelain veneers cover the front surface of the tooth in its entirety
If a larger part of your tooth was broken and the tooth’s pulp is exposed, there’s a good chance that you will need a root canal and a crown. While the idea of a root canal can seem scary, it’s a routine procedure that only requires local anesthesia. If the break is large but does not expose the pulp of your tooth, then a veneer or crown is likely the best solution. The process is a little bit more involved because you’ll have to wear a temporary veneer or crown until the permanent restoration is prepared, which usually happens within the next day or two.
Fixing A Cracked Tooth
A cracked tooth, also referred to as a fractured tooth, can cause a lot of pain, but sometimes you just feel discomfort that comes and goes. Even though the pain will likely drive you to a dentist, the reason why it’s so important to get the problem taken care of right away is that a crack can lead to an infection, which will exacerbate the problem and create other issues.
The severity of the crack will determine what kind of treatment is best. For instance, a crack that exposes the pulp of your tooth will probably require a root canal and a crown, similar to a broken tooth. However, if the pulp of your tooth is not exposed, then there’s a chance that your tooth can be fixed with filling material that’s tooth-colored, a crown, or a veneer. In the event that the crack is beneath your gum line or your tooth has fractured into pieces, then there’s a good chance that it will have to be removed and replaced. When this happens, most people want to find a solution right away. Fortunately, you can usually receive a dental implant on the same day that your tooth is extracted.
If you have a tooth that’s broken or cracked, Dental Specialty Associates of Phoenix and Dental Specialty Associates of Gilbert can guide you through the process of finding the right solution that fits your needs. You’ll have your smile back before you know it.
You open your mouth to yawn and feel like someone hit you in the jaw. Did you tear something? Is it serious? As alarming as the sounds and painful symptoms are, TMJ is not life-threatening.
If you think you may be suffering from temporomandibular joint dysfunction, read on to learn about the causes, symptoms and possible treatment options.
What Is TMJ?
TMJ is short for a temporomandibular joint disorder, although it’s also known as TMD. Before getting into the condition, it’s important that you know what it affects. The joint that is affected is the temporomandibular joint. This particular joint is what helps connect the jaw to the temporal bones of the skull. It’s what enables people to move their jaw so they can yawn, chew and talk.
What Are The Causes?
Unfortunately, there is no definitive cause of TMD. However, some dentists speculate that symptoms appear when there is a problem with muscles in the jaw or the joint itself. Suffering from any injuries to the jaw or muscles in the neck, such as whiplash, can lead to TMD.
Here is a list of a few other causes:
– Stress
– Adding pressure to the joint through clenching your teeth
– Having arthritis within the joint
– Movement between the ball and socket of the joint
What Are The Symptoms?
As with any ailment, there are symptoms involved with temporomandibular joint dysfunction.
These symptoms include:
– Pain in the face, neck around the ear or joint area
– One side of the face is swelling
– The face can have a tired feeling
– There are popping or clicking sounds in the jaw when opened
– Toothaches
– Shoulder pain
– Dizziness
– Earaches
Some people may experience ringing in the ears and hearing problems if the condition is severe.
How Is It Diagnosed?
In order to figure out the problem, you’re going to have to see a dentist. Once there, the dentist is going to ask about your medical history and have you undergo a physical exam. The dentist begins by checking the joints of your jaw for any tenderness and pain. They’ll also listen for any sounds your mouth can make such as clicking or popping when it’s moved. After checking if your jaw locks when it opens and closes, the dentist may take a few x-rays in order to look at your jaw, joints and teeth for any other ailments.
Should the case be severe, you may have to be referred to an oral surgeon to get the problem fixed.
What Are The Treatment Options?
TMD is far from untreatable. There are some treatments that can be done at home and some that require the attention of a doctor. However, it’s highly recommended that you seek out medical help when you’re suffering from a TMD. Taking painkillers such as aspirin and drinking hot tea is only a temporary solution.
Most TMD’s are treated with a custom dental tool. They are similar to mouth guards and can significantly help prevent the symptoms of TMD. In addition, they are also non-invasive, making them one of the best ways to treat this problem.
Another common form of TMD treatment is physical therapy. Therapy may include doing various jaw, face, and mouth exercises. Some therapy treatments may also utilize hot and cold compresses in order to eliminate the stiffness and alleviate the pain within the temporomandibular joint. Your therapist will create a special type of plan, depending on the type of symptoms you’re exhibiting.
Don’t be alarmed if you have a TMD as it is a very common ailment. However, if left untreated, the condition can become very severe, which may require surgery. If you’re suffering from any of the symptoms that we’re listed, call Dental Care Associates to get a proper diagnosis.
When you want to have a beautiful smile, it is essential to have a full set of teeth in your mouth, but it is possible to have missing teeth for a variety of reasons, including: (more…)
