I'm all finished with my dental implant from Dr. Nimesh Patel at Dental 2000 in Laguna Niguel and Irvine

February 10, 2015.

And the verdict is... (drum roll)

I HATE IT.  My gum line is destroyed for the rest of my life, on my front tooth.  I will be embarrassed to smile (and unfortunately, I have a big wide open smile).  I asked a lady that works in the office, "How often does this happen?", and she said, "All the time."

So, contrary to the pretty pictures of dental implants they show you on your first visit, you're likely to end up with a smile like I now have.

Throughout the entire procedure, Dr. Patel only saw me on my first visit (the sales pitch), the day of the surgery, and he glanced in my mouth for less than 2 seconds at a follow-up visit.  Everything else was handled by his office staff, who never told me what was going on.

Four months later and the verdict is almost in - I HATE IT

It's January 25, 2015.  Back in December, I repeatedly tried to contact the office (phone calls and emails).  I finally got a call back around January 10, and the young lady said, "Oh, we were closed the last two weeks of December, and then I was gone the first week of January, so I'm just now getting caught up."

So this Professional Office, Dental 2000, doesn't do business for a three week period?

Last Friday, I went in to the office to get my implant set for a crown.  A lady dentist came in and shot my mouth full of Novocaine.  At no point did she explain why she was putting more needles in my mouth, and at no point did she tell me what she was doing in there.  She pulled my temporary cap off and augured in the space in my mouth for 45 minutes to an hour - pushing and prodding - I don't know what she was doing.

When she was done, another lady (I assume she was a dental hygienist - but I don't know - they didn't tell me) poked and prodded drilled and drilled some more and stabbed me with something sharp for another 45 minutes making a new temporary.  Days later, my tooth and gums are still sore and tender from all of this unexplained torture.

But here's the horrible part.  The last lady told me that my gum line is permanently destroyed.  That the gum line will always be high over that tooth.  She said they can make a crown with a fake pink gum line built into it, but that those crowns don't look good.

So, it seems that Dr. Patel's inattentiveness while he was doing oral surgery in my mouth had the final effect of a destroyed gum line.  It was very disturbing that while he was doing surgery in my mouth, he was micro-managing his office, looking at other patients x-rays, training a new assistant, talking to his office staff about other files and discussing lab work.

This is my front tooth.  I used to have a nice smile (the top teeth were perfect) and now I have a lop-sided gum line.

I go back in a week for the crown, and will post a new photo when it's all done.  Here's a photo of the 2nd temporary they made for me.  At least this one isn't all black at the top.  I had to walk around for 4 months with a black tooth, and it was embarrassing and I didn't want to smile.

At my 2nd checkup after the surgery (Dr. Patel wasn't there) I asked the lady dentist about the gum line, and she just poo-poo'd it and said that the crown hadn't been put in yet.

The gum line over one of my middle teeth has been messed up as well, and that's from the stitches he put in during the surgery.

UPDATE 12/29/2014

It's time for me to have a new front tooth put on.  I contacted the Dental 2000 office two weeks ago via email to schedule an appointment, but they didn't acknowledge my email, so I waited until after the holidays to call.  On December 29th, I called the office and a lady answered the phone on the second ring.  I told her I wanted to make an appointment, and she said the office is closed until January 2nd, and that I couldn't set up an appointment with her (I guess she is in their other office) and no, I could not leave a message for the Laguna Niguel office.  Why answer the phone if you're telling your patients you can't even take a message?  This office definitely doesn't have it's administrative act together.

The past three months have been weird with the temporary tooth.  It's all black up at the top, and I'm embarrassed to smile, because then the blackness and the receded gum shows.  I'm worried that the finished product will have a messed up gum line.  I will post the finished product once it's done!

Dental implant surgery

I thought I'd keep a record of my dental implant experience.  It may be old news to many, but it's all new to me.  DON'T READ THIS IF YOU DON'T WANT TO SEE PICTURES - THEY'RE GROSS.

August 20, 2014, I went in for my first appointment at Dental 2000 in Laguna Niguel.  Dr. Patel did a little sales pitch, then left me watching a video, but the sound on their computer wasn't working - however, the video was clearly a sales pitch to get patients to purchase a porcelain tooth instead of a metal tooth.  The office manager took me into her office, and the $799 special they have in the newspaper quickly became around $1500 for a metal tooth, or $3200 for a porcelain tooth.  This is a front tooth for me, so I opted for the $3200 tooth.  I paid the bill in full, and made an appointment for the following Wednesday to have dental surgery.  The office didn't give me any prescriptions or any Valium for me to take the day of the surgery (I later overheard in the office that this is standard procedure).

August 27, my implant surgery was scheduled for 9am.  Dr. Patel arrived at the office at 9:45 and immediately got to work.  They gave me a blanket for my legs and offered me a headset to listen to music.  The assistant started playing some rap music (rap music?  I'm 53 years old?) on Pandora, but the headphones or the connection was bad and the sound kept going on and off, so I took off the headphones.  At that point, I had stuff in my mouth and couldn't talk.

For the next 2 hours, Dr. Patel worked in my mouth.  At the same time, he was multi-tasking.and running his office; reviewing another patients x-ray on the computer monitor, talking to various people in the office about sending stuff off to the lab, and training his new assistant, who kept putting things on the part of my tongue that's the gag reflex.  They're lucky they didn't get vomited on.

During the surgery, the roof of my mouth kept becoming painful, and about 4 times I had to have more pain killer injected into that area.  The surgery was extremely unpleasant.  I guess that's just what it is.

After it was finished I staggered out of the chair, and they did one more x-ray and I sat down in the waiting room.  A girl came out and handed me a white paper bag, and I drove home (I probably shouldn't have driven - but oh well).

When I arrived home, I had blood dripping down my chin and down my neck.  My husband put me to bed and got ice on my face, and he looked in the bag.  The office had sent me home with a few gauze pads and one piece of paper about dental surgery.  There were no prescriptions or any post op instructions.

My husband called the dental office, and they said they would call in a prescription. Three hours later, I was feeling better, so I drove to to the drugstore, but they still had not called it in.  So I called the dental office again, and they finally called in a prescription for antibiotics, and they gave me some  verbal post op instructions over the phone.

Here's what the gums, temporary tooth, and stitches looked like on 9/1.  The stitches went way up high, and over one tooth to the left and right of the replacement tooth.  These photos are gross, and yes, my teeth need cleaning (that's embarrassing - all those coffee stains!):

ONE WEEK LATER

During surgery, I think I may have bitten down on a block thing so hard during the surgery that I cracked one of my back molars.  I don't blame the office for that - but it will just be one more dental thing I'll have to tend to.  sigh...


TWO WEEKS LATER

For the first 7 or 8 days, I had nasty medicinal taste coming out of my sinuses.  This, I assume, was from the injections of pain killer that were injected into the roof of my mouth - I remember the bitter taste from the day of the surgery.

And I was TIRED.  So very tired.  I never nap, and yet every day for two weeks I had to lie down and sleep around 3 or 4pm every day.  So if you have dental surgery, cut yourself some slack, and let your body rest.

The stitches were so annoying!  There were some strings hanging down from the roof of my mouth that I was able to cut off with fingernail clippers.

I went in for a 2 week checkup, and the dental assistant fished around inside my mouth removing loose stitches, and Dr. Patel took a quick peek (he was performing surgery in the next room).

If you're reading this, once you finish up with your antibiotics, go buy some powerful probiotics at the drugstore to get your gut happy and working right with bacteria again.  Here's a photo after 11 days of healing:

FOUR WEEKS LATER

Finally, almost all of the stitches have fallen out.  I would work at the stitches with my tooth brush, and now and then a big string would work its way out.  I went in for a 4 week checkup, and a lady doctor checked me out, and she took a water pik thing and cleaned the temporary tooth up because it had gotten all yellow.  It looks pretty good now, except it's dark gray up at the top.  Now I have to wait until December or January for the next step.

Oddly, a month later, the end of my nose is still numb and tingly.  It never thawed out from the pain killers.  It doesn't bother me too much - it's just weird.

At this point, I think my biggest complaint is that I had no idea what I was getting myself into.   I didn't know that it took months and months, or what the step-by-step process was to do an implant.  The dental office never explained any of it.  The initial office visit was all about the sales pitch to get me to purchase the expensive front tooth, and no education about the work that was to be done.

I don't know if I'll be able to say, "I'm glad I did it!" a year from now.  Right now, I would undo it if I could.