Good bye...until...next time!

So, I finally had my final "zirconiums" put in (on the lower side) and I also got some "temporaries"...(until the bone graft is healed and I can go on with the rest of this dental job).

I am so happy with the results. Not only do they look very natural but it has already improved my self confidence and self esteem. I have gotten many compliments already from friends, family members and some perfect strangers that say: "but they look so natural like if they were your own teeth"...

Even the surgeon, Dr. Dorobantu (whom I saw today so he can remove the stitches from my last operation) complimented them...

Needless to add once again that...Dr. Mihai Dorobantu, Dr. Raluca Dragichi and Dr. Cristian Nicolae are truly perfectionists in every aspects of their work (and I felt it every single day in no matter how small or big the dental proceedure was). I highly recommend them all...

Today, Otilia (the very sweet receptionist) also gave me some pictures from my file. This one is from the day of my bone grafting operation...(and YES, that is me on that chair!!)

It got truly emotional to leave them ALL today and say...good bye until we will meet again...It really makes a difference when you feel that your doctors are looking out for your best interests...and yet, they remain so friendly and...human.

Over all, the quality of service I found at Office Dent Ro, Ploiesti, Romania...was excellent (starting with the three amazing doctors, continuing with the assisttants and the rest of the staff and going all the way to Andrei, my ever so kind young driver). 

Would go back again for sure and YES, I already recommended them to my family members and friends.

Thank you, Office Dent for putting back the smile on my face... I know I still have a long way to go, but I feel so good that I met these amazing professionals. It makes all the pain and the "not so nice" part of a dental work...easier to go through!

Zoom-ing and other smaller dental stories

Thursday I have spent a few more hours at the Office Dent in Ploiesti with Dr. Raluca Draghici and Dr. Cristian Nicolae. They remained so professional all this time, yet always displaying such a friendly attitude.

Anyway, on Thursday I have "met" the clinic's Zoom Whitening LAMP (and I needed this proceedure in order for the new zirconium that will be attached close to my natural teeth to match in color).

The experience was ok (funny at times because I was feeling like an alien with the orange glasses on and that blue "thing" stuck in my mouth) and slightly uncomfortable for the last three minutes of the total of 15 minutes. At the end of it all I received a vitamin E gel to apply on my slightly "white-ish" gums' edges ("whiteness" which dissapeared shortly after applying the soothing gel on) and instructed not to eat any "stainy" foods...

They also "trial fit" some zirconium into my mouth. The last surgeries' stitches  remained in place until next week.

I also received a copy of my last tomography (done in Bucharest at Medident) to take home with me. It is a 15 pages file containing all the details (3D and otherwise) regarding the structure of my mouth, teeth, measurements, bone density, etc. I LOVE this "custom" here in Romania, the doctors will give you a copy of ABSOLUTELY everything (x-rays, panoramics, boold work results, tomography, pictures taken during surgeries or proceedures, etc).

Next week I am hoping to reach a "conclusion" to this FIRST STAGE of my dental "restauration" adventure and hopefully, I will have a few more "free of dentist" days to spend with my relatives in Bucharest. Hopefully, I will be able to SMILE again by next week.

When I will do, I will be able to say it again, from the depth of my heart: "THANK YOU SO MUCH, OFFICE DENT RO...See you again in...December 2011...!"

Life (and eating) after Bone Graft Surgery

What can I say? Life or eating after a bone graft is not easy, especially for me. With two bone grafts in my mouth and a sore chin all I can do is drink plenty of fluids and eat small and "mushy", soft meals.

At first, I was a bit upset when I heard that my mom sold her cozy apartment in the city so she can  move outside the city in a cozy (and bigger than her apartment) home. But then I understood that, after all, she is a retired (sweet, most amazing mama) lady, she deserves her peace and...her own choices). Needless to say that now I am happy because of her choice because at this time in my life I could benefit from it. How?

First of all, I found here, in her home, an "island" of peace (being away from the people I did not want to see while being swollen and bruised up, helped) silence and...also because I  "juiced" up everything I found in my mom's little BIO-100% ORGANIC garden...(and the fruits and vegetables truly do miracles to my diet and...to my strength these days)...

Don't believe me? Well, here are a few examples of what my stomach is receiveing (after these surgeries) from my mom's garden of...pure organic goodness...

My own advices so far (after bone graft surgery):

EAT HEALTHY!!! You won't be able to eat much, so, at least, whatever make it to your stomach, make sure is healthy and nourishing...You will feel better, have more strength, less discomfort and heal faster if you continue to eat...HEALTHY!

Drink from a glass or cup and don’t use a straw because the sucking motion will suck out the healing blood clots and start the bleeding again, never mind the pain that a sucking motion could create and the discomfort that will create to the stitches (which I still have and feel all over my jaw). Drinking clear, healthy mama's-soup from a glass, was weird, but, ohhhh, soooo good!

Avoid hot liquids or food.

Soft food and liquids can be eaten and you should avoid chewing sharp or hard meals at the surgical site for several days so to avoid the pain and any further damages.

Try to eat multiple small meals a day.

Try to maintain a good oral hygiene on the  surgery site.

Try to rinse very gently. The few days after surgery I was rinsing at least 6-7 times a day especially after eating with plain water or water mixed with a mouthwash.

And, yes, of course the mouthwash has an alcohol base to it so it was not easy to take the "sting" when it came in contact with my fresh oral wounds, but if you gradually start mixing the water with it (at first the ratio should be 1:4(5) (so one small part of mouthwas mixed with 4 or 5 parts of water), things will be great. This will make it taste and smell better. You can gradually build up to the mouthwash as you feel more comfortable and less afraid of the "stingyness".

I have never ever smoked in my life so for me was easy to obey this rule, so...remember: NO SMOKING AT ALL!!! Smoking will just slow the healing process significantly and make the pain even worse.

TAKE IT EASY with any physical activity including exercising, take a few days to relax because, otherwise, throbbing or bleeding may occur. Find a good position to sleep on so you don't put much pressure on the surgery site. Having had two (three-including the chin) surgery sites, my sleep is still not very comfortable but I have gotten used to it and I know is just temporary.

To date, I haven't experienced any "side effects" from my bone grafts!!! I am trying to stay as positive as I can and I believe that these surgeries are 100% successful and after 4 months of healing, everything will be great...

So, the healing is going well, I am also wandering outside a bit more too and...I am feeling well being surrounded by my family (and their love and care and also by all this nature that I almost forgot about after living-for the past 15 years-in the...big cities of the world)...

Dual Bone Grafting by Dr. Mihai Dorobantu

So, the dual dental bone grafting operations were performed on me by Dr. Mihai Dorobantu at Office Dent, Ploiesti.

 
People who have been without teeth for a prolonged period of time may not have enough bone left (as it happened to me) so, in order to get dental implants (in December 2011), I must have had these two bone grafting operations (in order to restore the area of missing teeth). Dental implants require bones underneath them for support and to have the implant integrate properly into the mouth.

In my case, bone was taken from my own chin and inserted into my mouth, on both right and left lower sides. Also, approximate 1.5 grams of artificial bone was also used beside my own bone being transplanted from my chin.

The operation lasted 3 hours and was performed by Dr. Mihai Dorobantu, supported by a anesthesiologist (Dr. Raluca P.). So, Dr. Dorobantu's dental expertise and my physician-assisted intravenous sedation ATI were just the beginning...He was also assisted by Dr. Cristian Nicolae (and I think...Petra, the assisstant). Dr. Raluca Draghici was also around...at all times. My mother was waiting outside...most likely praying for me :).

My very personal opinion on the surgery:

Says a lot when you can trust somebody to make a transplant, add dental bone and then put titanium screws in your jaw in order to secure the new bone additions.

Dr. Dorobantu tried to completely rebuilt my inferior dental bones and gave me all my options for each procedure. He was also so reassuring and gentle when I came off the sedation. I now understand why he is on top of his profession.

He is by far the most skilled dental surgeon I have been to. Throughout my entire operation he had a calming presence (and I can say the absolute same about Dr. Nicolae too) and they were both very conscious of my pain threshold- always "freezing" me appropriately so I don't feel any pain at all.

 

I am now three days post-operatory and although my jaw is still swollen and my bruises are very visible, I have great hopes that the healing is already happening and that soon I will be seeing my doctors again.

Back to the day of the surgery:

After the dental bone surgery I was sent home (once again, with Andrei, who drove so carefully trying not to create more discomfort that I was already feeling) with precise orders regarding taking some medicine for the following few days: antibiotics (Augmentin), anti-inflammatory (Arcoxia), a mild pain killer (Algocalmin), Corsodyl mouthwash, cream for the bruises (Hepathrombin) and a bucofaringian spray-Hexoral that I was supposed to spray on the stitches (spread in all three areas of my mouth-chin and right and left lower sides).

The post-surgery pain was considerable in the following few hours (but handled well with some Algocalmin) and then it subsided in the following days to just a level of discomfort. The bothering part is the swollen jaw (I feel like I am channelling Jay Leno now :) and the fact that I can’t open my mouth too much so eating is really hard (and I am getting sick already of sipping my soup out of a glass). But over all, this whole experience was not as scary or as painful as I thought...although...very very uncomfortable.

So, today, in my third day post-surgery, I can see the bruises lowering onto my neck and some swollen area “falling” also onto my neck...Is it normal, is is part of the healing?

I absolutely hope so...

Great doctors and...other dental procedures

For the past few days I had been spending almost 6-7 hours, every day at the Office Dent clinic in Ploiesti. Andrei, the young driver would pick me up from my mom’s home at around 11:00 AM and he would take me back home around 6:00-7:00 PM.

Dr. Raluca Draghici and Dr. Cristian Nicolae had been working  hard (and absolutely carefully, with almost no pain) on a few root canals and also on preparing some of the teeth for individual zirconium crowns. All this time, I once again felt all their professionalism, care and amazing patient manners.

I never felt rushed (they even ignored their own lunch breaks so they can attend to my needs and treatments). Their staff (assistants, receptionist, even Dr. Draghici’s charismatic husband whom I also got to meet, etc) are amazingly friendly too.

I feel part of a caring family and I enter this clinic every day KNOWING that I am getting the best care possible. Maybe it’s wrong to feel this way (especially since I had been terrified of dentists all my life) but I can’t help it when, at the end of the day, after lots of dental procedures being done, nobody is asking me to pay IMMEDIATELY, but they wave at me goodbye saying:”Don’t worry, we’ll talk about payments another time, we trust you, see you tomorrow, have a great night, call us at any time in the day or night if you need something”.

And they truly mean it and they truly provided me with all their personal cell phone numbers and they truly answered me when I called...And yes, this is happening in Ploiesti, Romania, at Office Dent in August, 2011...

These days I also got to meet the very nice  Dr. Despina Miciulica, General Dentistry, Orthodontics who took a lot of impressions and measurements of my mouth. She will most likely be responsible, along with Dr. Draghici, for my final smile and the CAM/CAD  zirconium technology final results of my new crowns.

Finally, I also had to make a trip to Bucharest (again, Andrei, the very nice, young driver was with me) for having a dental tomography done at the F.M.MEDIDENT DENTAL X-RAY INSTITUTE, located on 7 Corneliu Coposu Blvd.

This tomography will be used by Dr. Mihai Dorobantu to help him get an accurate view of hard tissues, meaning the teeth and my bones, inside my maxillofacial region. He’ll need this info for my bone grafting operation scheduled for the day after tomorrow. So it was important for me to have it done...

Computed or computerized tomography works by capturing radiographic images of the patient in high resolution, which makes it easy for the dentist to see those hard tissues, density of the dental bones, etc.

The scan of my jaw using this method took less than half a minute and the staff at MEDIDENT-Bucharest was nice and helpful. It was a pretty neat experience, but pretty pricey (500RON-Romanian currency=approx: $170.00USD).

I also had to have done some blood work (in preparation for the dental bone grafting), and that cost me around $50.00-$60.00USD.

Deep Scaling Operation with Dr. Mihai Dorobantu, Office Dent, Ploiesti

So, I chose the right, but LONG(ER) and healthier way for my dental care treatment plan and I have already been through the deep scaling operation performed at the Office Dent by Dr. Mihai Dorobantu (General Dentistry, Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeon).

I’ve made the best decision by choosing to take Dr. Draghici advice and have Dr. Dorobantu operating me! He was such a blessing!

I had been told by other Romanian  and Canadian doctors that I would need this "small surgery" and the removal of one (almost rotten) tooth under  the old porcelain bridge. Dr. Mihai Dorobantu did the entire work with much care, professionalism and in half the time estimated by the other clinics (needless to say that the deep scaling was also done for all of my teeth and at a fraction of the price my Canadian dentist quoted me for ONLY FOUR FRONT TEETH).

I would highly recommend a visit to Dr Dorobantu at Office Dent because he will firmly and honestly tell you the truth about what your best options are and I now know that the quality of his work is....great.

I have researched his credentials and I found out that he has a very good reputation in Romania, great results and he keeps up-to-date with all the latest procedures and attends many conferences and workshops worldwide. While operating on me he was also very professional, very caring (he kept apologizing while he was “freezing” my mouth and I was squeezing my eyes-because I HATE needles). He was sooo HUMAN and friendly from the first moment he met me.

Scaling and Root Planing is used when a patient shows signs of periodontal disease (or signs of gingivitis or very easily bleeding gums-like me). So, after the Dr. Dorobantu froze my gums, he then went deeply under the tissue of the gums and scraped the plaque/and infection off so that the gum tissue becomes healthy again and re-attaches itself to the tooth structure. If I wouldn’t have done this, I could have had even more bone loss and one can end up losing teeth or get more root decay. It definitely does work and helps maintain any periodontal issues.

I knew I have done the right thing by having this operation done when I realized that the blood coming off my gums was somehow...purple and not red or pink (as it should be in healthier cases). I know, I know...maybe this is too much information here, but if I could save someone from the pain of going through what I am going through now, I will do it in a second...So, by writing here all these details and advising everyone not too skip on dental care and maintenance...it is my way of trying to spread awarness about all this.

The average cost of SRP (deep scaling) in Canada runs about $200.00-$250.00 per quadrant (remember you have 4 quadrants so this is 250 x 4).  My average cost for this operation in my entire mouth (PLUS an extraction done in the same session) (at Office Dent in Ploiesti, Romania) was...a bit less than half...(of what would have cost me in Canada).

I am now scheduled to have the dual bone grafting operation soon with Dr. Mihai Dorobantu and later on, in about four months time, when I will return to Romania, he will also be the doctor who will perform my operation for titanium implants.

But for now, I have to think of maintaining great healthy gums and taking care of the surgical stitches that I now have inserted in a few places in my gums...Not to mention the “hole” left after the extraction of that “almost rotten tooth”...

At the end of this deep scaling intervention, Dr. Draghici provided me with a car (and a personal driver-Andrei-a very young, intelligent and ambitious young man and student) so I can skip the taxi and/or the inconvenience of finding my way home and she promised me the same "driving treatment" for the rest of my stay in Romania (being picked up from home by their clinic's car and driver and brought to the clinic, then, being taken back home the same way). Such a nice gesture, I could not thank her enough. And not only this, she also sent me home with a complimentary bottle of mouthwash CORSODYL, so I don’t have to waste my time in a pharmacy trying to buy it myself.

Talking about how human and absolutely amazing some doctors could be!!!

I am feeling so blessed to have found such an amazing caring doctor like Dr. Raluca Draghici (and the entire staff of Office Dent, Ploiesti).

Finally, at the Office Dent, Ploiesti

Today, at 11:00 sharp, I was walking into Office Dent Clinic in Ploiesti. My brother-in-law was driving and because he knows Bucharest better than Ploiesti, of course...we got lost a bit. But we called the office and we finally found the dental clinic on 5A Laboratorului (Lab) Street in Ploiesti. The big white building was looking as good as in the website's pictures...This sign took us right to the stairs...

Once arrived, I was welcomed by Otilia, a young, beautiful receptionist who (very gracefully) announced our arrival and then asked us if we want to serve some water, coffee or some tea. Before I could answer, a young and smiling Dr. Raluca Draghici (General Dentistry-Oral Implantology competency) appeared into the lobby, greeted me and in a very professional yet friendly way shook my hand. I immediately felt at ease with her (and I could have bet she was a "Gemini" because I have a great "connection" with Geminis (being a Leo myself) and I know Gemeni women are so caring and also such...professional, almost too perfectionist, hard workers).

She then introduced me to another doctor from the same dental office, Dr. Cristian Nicolae (General Dentistry-Periodontology Specialization) who was also very pleasant and happy to meet me, the “patient from Canada”.

Then, Dr. Draghici invited me into one of their treatment rooms and, on that comfortable green chair...the real dental examination begun.

Dr. Draghici was assisted by two very young yet very professional assistants: Andreea and Petra. What I have feared all along...came true: after the doctor saw the situation of my teeth "live", after she saw what was “under that old porcelain bridge" and the nature/state of my dental bone throughout my moujth, the  whole dental treatment plan has changed....

 There are two ways of looking at my treatment plan now:

 1.    The short way which could be done in one month but has no lasting guarantee and is only a “patching” way which the doctor did not advised me to choose...

2.    Or the right way which implies...deep scaling operation, then some zirconium teeth restoration, dual bone grafting operations, then, four months of healing. Later on, when the dental bone grafts will be healed, I will have to get a few (titanium or zirconium?) implants. After a few more months of waiting for the implants to completely integrate into the new bone, I will have the final zirconium crown on implants restoration on the sides.

This second correct plan means that I will have to wait until the summer of 2012 to have everything done and finalized the right, healthy and more permanent way. In between these sessions I will have some very good looking and functional temporary "teeth"-executed in the same CAM-CAD manner (I was assured of it many times!).

The cost also changed although it is still three or four times cheaper than what would cost me for the same treatment plan in Canada (and yes, I also calculated two more extra plane tickets for two extra visits to Romania in the months to come). But yet...it is not what and how much I expected when I left Canada, two days ago.

I know (and the doctors in Canada also confirmed) that this is the RIGHT AND HEALTHY way to go. Anything else I would choose at this moment would be a compromise and a total waste of time...and money.

Needless to say that I've left the office looking a bit...fearful...but not completely dissapointed. At least....there is hope to keep my teeth and to have functional dental bone again on the sides of my mandibule...

I am still to deliver the news to my husband...in Canada. I am tired, worried and...a bit scared...but I know this is my chance to finally approach my dental care...the right way.

Welcome to Romania

I have arrived to Romania!!! Finally!

After more than 10-11 hours  of Air France flights' delay, in the middle of the night, I was walking on Romanian soil.

Note to selve: TRY TO NEVER EVER FLY WITH AIR FRANCE AGAIN!!! The delays (both in Montreal, Canada and Paris, France) were so stressfull. The Air France representatives were also rude and very un-attentive when I try to talked to them or arrange a seat in a later flight. They've treated me and others, their paying customers, with rude attitude, mean comments and an over all poor customer service. Very dissapointing...(and I had been travelling all over the world for more than 15 years with all sorts of air companies, but I never experienced such poor customer service attitude...). This is a lesson that taught me that CHEAPER TICKETS are not always  the best way to get somewhere...

Anyway, my sister picked me up from the Otopeni Airport in Bucharest and dropped me off, after midnight, at my mom's new house, just outside of Ploiesti.

I am sooo tired...but oh, sooo ready to meet with my dentist at Office Dent...in just a few hours!