This morning

I went to the Prothodontist for the next step in my treatment. The appointment went like this.

I got two shots of novocaine, which were the easiest I've had, but it did not feel like my mouth was numb at all. Sometimes older dentists are more experienced with this stuff. Then he took this curved scalpel and cut/dug each implant out under the skin (this did not hurt, and the asst was good at sucking up all the blood so I didn't taste it). Then he unscrewed the implant caps (which felt weird, and my implants started throbbing and hurting). It felt like someone was unscrewing something down deep in your chin bone. Then I bit on two different wax bites, then a model thing was attached to my ears ( to articulate my bite). He screwed in these really long posts into each implant (I was in throbbing pain by then) and put this hard acyclic stent like thing that fit over the long posts. he kept trying it on and taking it off and drilling the holes to make it bigger, sometimes with it still in my mouth. Then he pushed red wax over each and every bracket (gosh all my teeth hurt). Then he took the longest impression I've ever had pushing down on the area the entire time. This was followed by two X-rays of the area. Then he unscrewed each long post (remember I have four), then screwed in each longer healing cap followed by several excruciating twists to tighten with an additional wrench.

I was in substantial throbbing pain by this time. His asst gave me three Advil. I started crying when I got in the car, the pain was so bad. When those took effect I was much better. My chin and cheeks are still sore from holding open for 1 hour 15 min. But I'm not really in as much pain anymore.

This surprisingly turned out to be an ordeal.