Dr. Tanner Townsend and Dr. Joshua Muir discuss common misconceptions about dental implants, focusing on pain, downtime, cost, and appearance. They argue that pain is manageable, often the most painful part being the numbing process, which is minimized by modern techniques. Downtime is minimal, with patients advised to return to work after a few hours. Cost is comparable to other options like bridges, but dental implants offer long-term benefits. Technology, such as virtual implant placement, simplifies the procedure and reduces complexity. They encourage patients to address dental issues promptly and offer consultations to create personalized treatment plans.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 0:00 Hey, welcome back to the Smile Reconstruction Podcast. I’m your host. Dr Tanner Townsend, along with my fabulous co-host, Dr Joshua Muir, and in this episode, we’re going to be discussing is getting a dental implant as bad as you think so. Dr Muir, I think there’s several different misconceptions that patients have in their mind about getting a dental implant, and they think it’s this awful thing that is going to happen and is painful. But let’s talk about a few of the things. So, let’s talk about like common fears. First, what are some of the common fears that we hear, and what’s the truth behind them?

Dr. Josh Muir 0:42 Well, you mentioned pain, and that’s when we need to discuss. There’s also downtime. Like, am I going to be I going to be away from work or family for two three days? Do I need to take the week off? That’s an important one. There’s some of it is the cost. Is a fear, and then what will I look like after that? Am I going to be really swollen? So, let’s talk about the pain, because that one is something that’s that comes up often. So, you and I have talked about this before, but sometimes we’ll see dental ads and they’ll say, we guarantee 100% pain free dentistry. And what do we say to that?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 1:24 It’s a bunch of crap.

Dr. Josh Muir 1:25 It’s a bunch of crap because even if they’re just getting numb, or even if they’re having an IV placed for sedation, there’s a little poke there. There’s some comfortable involved. But the neat thing about this is typically getting numb is the most painful part of the procedure. I kid you not. So if you can handle getting numb, you can handle this, and we do have a lot of techniques nowadays to even make that numbing procedure not a big deal from some of these profound topical jellies that we put on it to some tricks that we’ve learned over the years working with pediatrics and other things. So, pain really shouldn’t be a big fear. Nowadays, we have some great medicines that don’t make you sleepy, don’t knock you out, but that help you feel good after that, and they decrease inflammation. So, so pain myth busted. What was the second one we said?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 2:26 Next one is downtime.

Dr. Josh Muir 2:27 Okay

Dr. Tanner Townsend 2:28 How long are you going to be down for?

Dr. Josh Muir 2:29 So if someone comes in for a single implant in the morning, we tell them, Go to work after your procedure. You know?

Dr. Tanner Townsend 2:37 So minimal.

Dr. Josh Muir 2:39 Yeah, take a couple hours off work, come and get it done, and then go back to work. Now there are a few things that should be said. One is, you know, we’re going to prescribe a steroid to help decrease or limit inflammation and swelling, and in doing that, it also limits the amount of pain that you’re going to have. And so, if you’ll follow those things, just like we say, then that downtime really is minimal.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 3:04 The next thing that we kind of wanted to touch on was cost. Sometimes the patients have that fear of cost coming into like, oh my goodness, is this going to be another expensive dental bill? What would you say about that?

Dr. Josh Muir 3:16 So number one, you must look at, what are your other options. So, if you’re comparing it to, what is the cost of doing nothing versus the cost of getting a dental implant? Well, then there’s, yeah, there’s a big difference there. One is zero and one is a lot more than that. But if you’re looking at, well, I could either get a bridge, I could have an implant, I could have a partial denture of some kind. Well, the costs aren’t hugely different, and so when you then, you start looking at, well, what is the cost? Maybe that’s not financial, but what is the cost of having something that must come in and out? What is the cost of shaving down the adjacent teeth to connect a bridge to them. Or what is you know, what does it cost to have the most natural treatment done that feels and looks natural, that lets you speak naturally, that you can clean in the same way that you’ve been used to cleaning your teeth? I mean, there’s that’s worth a lot. And so cost really, as you start comparing it to the other options. It’s not a big difference.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 4:24 I think that’s one of those misconceptions that I see all the time. It’s like, oh, why don’t I just do a bridge? Well, it costs you, like, just about the same I would do it. You look at the long term cost the bridge probably cost you more because you’re shortening the lifespan of the teeth next door.

Dr. Josh Muir 4:40 Another thing that I thought of was how we’re able to use technology nowadays to make the procedure faster, smoother, less complex for the patient. And so, some people, they really, they have this fear of how complicated it all is. But in our office, we. Do a lot of preparation work before the appointment and patient are ever even there. We work a lot on the computer. We use software. We virtually place the implants and complete the whole surgery beforehand, so that when the patient’s there, we already know the pitfalls we must watch out for as we’re working on that specific patient. And so, I think that eliminates one of those fears. It makes it more predictable, makes it faster and a better experience, really, for the patient.

Dr. Tanner Townsend 5:33 And I think I have a lot of patients that say, oh, that was it. And oh, that was way quicker than I thought it was going to be. I had a guy last week. We had scheduled him for little over an hour, and he’s like, oh, we’re done already. And I think that’s one of those things that patients don’t realize. It’s not as complicated as you think, especially if we do the prep work beforehand. So don’t wait months to fix this problem. If you’ve got a tooth that you’ve been thinking about getting replaced, or you know that you have a tooth that has been causing you problems, come and get it fixed. Schedule a consultation today, and we’ll help you make a game plan of what the next steps are. So that is it for today’s episode of the Smile Reconstruction Podcast. Thank you for joining us, and we will see you all next time, thanks, everyone.