Frequently asked questions

We recognize that your insurance may help you pay for part of your care. Your insurance coverage is a contract between you and your insurance carrier. As a courtesy, we will bill services provided in our office to your insurance carrier with the complete information you have provided. Visit our Insurance Frequently Asked Questions. An initial payment is often required at the time of service depending on your insurance benefit and coverage. To help alleviate unexpected financial obligations, we recommend that you contact your insurance company to verify your treatment plan for your procedure. Also, if you require monthly payment options, we recommend PatientFi. They offer quick acceptance and low monthly patient options.

It’s up to them. We have a variety of options of anesthesia to accommodate different patients’ needs, and we discuss anesthesia preferences prior to the surgery day. With IV sedation, which is the most common method, your child will be asleep during the whole procedure. IV conscious sedation is administered safely in our office to get your child through oral surgery with no anxiety. During the entire procedure, they are continually monitored for every vital sign. They will also be breathing on their own, unlike with hospital general anesthesia where they’d be intubated with a breathing tube during surgery. It doesn’t require that much medication to keep your teenager asleep during surgery since the first thing that we do once they are asleep is numb all the surgical sites. Once they are numb and comfortable, it takes relatively low amounts of medicine to keep them asleep during the surgery.

The third day is typically when the swelling reaches its maximum which means any pain is also its worst around that time. However, our patients who stay on top of interchanging Tylenol with Ibuprofen and ice consistently the first few days manage any discomfort with no problems.

Not necessarily. We assess each patient’s oral health thoroughly as we determine the best course of action for each unique case. Sometimes only one or two third molars need to be removed. But removing them all at one time means fewer surgeries if more need to be removed down the road.

No! In fact, your teenager will be adequately anesthetized and won’t feel a thing. It isn’t uncommon for patients to have soreness for a few days following the surgery as the anesthesia wears off. Before surgery, we will discuss pain control methods and set you up with any necessary prescriptions so that they remain comfortable at home as well.

They will probably be too sleepy to do much the first day of your recovery, but most patients are back to their normal activities within 3-4 days.

Before treatment begins, every effort will be made to give you an accurate estimate of all the expenses involved in placing the implants and making your replacement teeth. When different doctors are involved in your treatment, you will be charged separately for their services. We will try to assist you in estimating what your actual payments will be after we evaluate your insurance coverage or other third party payments. Also, you should consider your personal financial investment in each treatment option as some insurance companies provide limited or no coverage. Each patient is unique, and it is not possible for us to discuss every option and every contingency for treatment outcome. This website is intended to help you understand the general treatment options available to you. If your specific treatment options are not clear, please contact us. We will be happy to answer any questions you have about your dental care.

Usually, a dental surgeon places the implant(s) and performs other necessary surgical procedures – your general dentist provides the temporary and permanent replacement teeth. Both doctors are involved in planning your dental treatment. Also, depending upon a variety of factors, different dental specialists may help with your dental care.

As with natural teeth, it is important that you clean implant-supported restorations regularly with toothbrushes, floss, and any other recommended aids. You should also visit your dentist several times each year for hygiene and maintenance. As with regular dentures and other tooth replacements, your implants and their associated components are subject to wear and tear and eventually will need repair, including clip replacement, relines, screw tightening, and other adjustments.

The replacement teeth are usually attached to the implant when adequate healing has occurred and your jaw bone is firmly fused to the implant. Depending on a variety of factors, it may be possible to begin this phase of your treatment immediately or shortly after implant placement. We will review the most appropriate treatment sequence and timing for your particular situation. The dental work required to complete your treatment is complex. Most of the work involves actually making the new teeth before they are placed. Your appointments are considered more comfortable and more pleasant than previous methods of tooth replacement. Frequently, this process can be performed without local anesthesia. Your restorative treatment begins with specialized impressions that allow us to produce a replica of your mouth and implants. We will also make “bite” records so that we see the relationship of your upper and lower jaws. With this information, we will make the abutments (support posts) that attach your replacement teeth to your implants. Various types of abutments exist. Frequently, we can use a “stock” abutment, also known as a healing cuff. Other times, custom abutments or healing cuffs can be fully customizable. We use a patented Gingival Cuff Link System (TM). This custom healing cuff can be sculpted to the correct size and shape of the replaced tooth to conform to the individual patient esthetics. You can discuss which option is best with your surgeon. The number of appointments and the amount of time required for each appointment is different for each patient. No two cases are exactly the same and regardless of the number of teeth replaced, the work must be completed with great precision and attention to detail. If you are having only a few teeth replaced, as few as three short appointments may be required. Between appointments, we will need time to complete the necessary lab work to make your replacement teeth. It is most beneficial that you keep all of your scheduled appointments. If your final restoration is a removable denture, you will need to come to as many as five office appointments (although it may be fewer) over the following several months. During these appointments, we will perform a series of impressions, bites, and adjustments in order to make your new teeth, as well as the custom support bars, snaps, magnets, or clips that will secure your teeth to the implants. During this period, every effort will be made to ensure you have comfortable, temporary replacement teeth.

In general, once your implants are placed, you can expect your tooth replacement treatment to be completed anywhere from 1 to 12 months.