My Bone Graft in Vietnam
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While I was eating an apple, my front tooth fractured. I had a long history of problems with this tooth. My dentist in Darwin said it needed to come out and have an implant placed. He said my case would be challenging because I have a high smile and wanted a specialist to do it. He bonded a temporary tooth.
I decided to go to Vietnam upon recommendation from a friend to have a dental implant done with Westcoast. I was hoping that the extraction and implant could be done one time.
Unfortunately, Dr. Andrew said it was not possible to put the implant in right away after extracting the tooth. He said the entire front side of bone was missing and if placed the implant and bone graft at the same time, long term we risk the gums receding exposing the implant. He was very frank about this situation and this was good because I didn’t want long term problems.
The bone graft was a mix of my own bone and cow bone. It went rather well. I was swollen for three days but there surprisingly wasn’t too much pain with it. I also had gum taken from the roof of my mouth attached to the site because I didn’t have enough gum too. That was really quite painful for more than a week.
I came back to have the implant placed after eight months. That also was quite easy appointment lasting less than an hour. Then a temporary tooth was used to mold my gums for months. Daniele the dentist in Hanoi really spent a lot of time doing this and didn’t even charge for me.
I appreciate the time to work on my gums. The dentists put a lot of emphasis on making sure the gum was shaped right. I understood this was an important aspect to make the outcome good.
The final crown process was easy and done in a few days. I decided to do a veneer on the next tooth because this was my understanding the best way to achieve symmetry in my case.
This is how it all looked before.
You have no idea how grateful I am to the Westcoast team for their hard work and dedication. I even convinced my husband David to come and his mouth is undergoing complex dental work. Feel free to email me at lizcrudge@hotmal.com if you would like first hand discussion about having dental surgery in Vietnam. I know how unnerving it is to travel first time overseas for dental treatment.
– Liz from Australia