Monday, November 17, 2008

Well, Heck

The good news is, of the eight implants, four worked. The bad news is, four didn't. The oral surgeon expected one, possibly two, would fail. Four struck him as quite unusual. Lucky me.

For all four implants that failed, the bone was augmented by bovine bone. Apparently, my body doesn't like that. Two were immediately replaced with human bone; for the other two, apparently that wasn't an option, though I'm not sure why. The device can work with six implants -- but its going to be another six or eight months until the new ones fuse with the bone, and the damn device can be installed. At least, until the next damn problem surfaces.

The sedative, that I was concerned about, turned out to be a total non-issue. I was awake, but in a different plane of existence.

Oh, and afterwards I learned -- don't let the dentist nick your palatal artery. It won't show up as an immediate problem, because epinephrine will effectively constrict it, and blood won't flow (who knew?), but afterwards, when the drug wears off, the artery will not stop bleeding on its own, no matter how much gauze you stuff in your mouth. Though the resulting muffled voice is good for doing Marlon Brando impressions.

Two stitches later, I'm okay, though, for some reason, rather grumpy.

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