Dental implant is the latest treatment modality for the replacement of missing tooth. The treatment as such is not painful but the fear of the surgery is more painful than the surgery itself.

Common quotes such as: “I don’t want dental procedures in my mouth – it hurts, when I visited the dentists some said the procedure won’t pain much some said it’s a doable pain. I am confused. Better I take medicines and leave it on God”.

The apprehensions for dental treatment are genuine and they can be grouped in two categories- one who had previous bad experience and second who are fearful because of listening to other people’s responses. The fear of the pain some time can become nightmare for the patients.

The first step in overcoming fear of the dentist or dental treatment involves gathering accurate information to help you judge the veracity, or truth, of those fears. Knowledge can be a powerful weapon against fear.

In fact, many people fear death because it is “the great unknown.” A comforting component of many religions is the promise of heaven and other rewards in the afterlife. Although it can’t be promised you that your dental experiences will be “heavenly,” but can be promised that it won’t fall at the other end of the spectrum! Learning about how dentists deal with people’s fears is a good starting point in alleviating a fear of the dentist, himself.

The most important way a dentist reduces or eliminates discomfort during dental treatment is to make sure that the patient’s mouth is as numb using local anesthesia. The actual procedure should be painless most of the time after this but there are some procedures which are likely to be painful and will require extra local anesthesia (LA) or perhaps an additional LA technique, such as doing a root canal on a very infected tooth.

Anatomical variation can sometimes mean that unusual LA techniques are required. But this is actually quite a rare occurrence.

If patient’s response to the first anesthesia is not good then option to give them more anesthesia should be sought or wait a few minutes and test again. In some people’s mouth it takes a little longer to become numb. Always signal your dentist to stop if you are having pain. If the dentist doesn’t listen, you need to find a new one!

In some instances, you may still feel varying degrees of pain even after everything feels numb. There are a few reasons for this, including inaccurate placement of the anesthesia, not enough time allowed for the anesthetic to work or severe infection in the area interfering with the potency of the anesthesia. The dentist can remedy these situations by redirecting the anesthesia (giving more), waiting longer before beginning treatment or postponing the treatment and prescribing an antibiotic to reduce the infection.

It wouldn’t be genuine to say that pain is not there in dental surgery, pain as a part of procedure would be manageable if patient overcomes the apprehension and would be really in a better state to tolerate it, but post-operative or post-treatment pain can be there in dental surgeries; the only thing which patient has to do is to listen to the instructions and calm down his apprehensions and report to the dentist if pain persists.

The concept of painless dentistry truly does not exist. The painless procedure is decided by the patient’s psychology, attitude, fear, pain tolerance threshold, infection and most important the dentist who is dealing with the patient. The patient should express the pain and dentist should alleviate the fear or give the proper medication (analgesics, anti-anxiety) before the procedures.

The psychological counseling plays a vital role in alleviating the fears of the patient. The patient and the dentist have to share the responsibility of the procedures to be performed and should discuss the post-operative instructions for the pain in elaborate way.

Major procedures like, impacted tooth removal, jaw fractures, dental implant and other invasive procedures might need extra counseling and understanding. The final goal has to be realized first, remember most of the time patient has discomfort which he or she attributes to pain.

Dental implant pain is something which most people experience after the surgery. The surgery itself is painless due to anesthesia. After that the person experiences slight pain and discomfort. However, the pain should subside within 2 to 3 days. Your dentist may prescribe you some antibiotic and analgesic medications for dental implant pain relief.

If the pain becomes excruciating, you should see your surgeon immediately, so that any complications can be handled as fast as possible.

Dental implant surgery has many advantages. The complications like dental implant pain arising after surgery should not deter you from seeking this treatment option. These complications can be easily taken care of with corrective measures. The pain due to dental implant can easily handled with the help of effective pain alleviating therapy, proper counseling and motivation.

Dr. Bhagavandas Rai

(MDS, Oral Surgeon & Implantologist at Smilez Dental Clinic Udaipur.)