I gag when my dentist takes impression, do I have any other options?
Dear Dr Hughes, I have a missing tooth in my front lower jaw. I would like to have this replaced but from experience have been unable to accept the impressions phase – I have a plate for the upper teeth, the impressions were done while I was put to sleep – this is not available to me where I live – I am 66 years old. Any advice you can offer me would be very much appreciated.
Hello and thank you for your enquiry
I have several patients very like yourself who cannot tolerate impression taking , usually due to a very strong gag reflex.
There are several options open to you.
The most obvious one is using sedation techniques and this we can provide at any of my practices
The second is trying hypnotherapy…but this takes time and is sometimes not effective
The 3rd is that we take the record of your mouth by using a digital scanner, rather than an impression. We sue a machine here in Harley Street called and iTero. Here is a link to a website:
http://www.cadentinc.com/itero/itero.php?section=patient
Our implant expert and prosthodontic specialist Dr Fahey is one of the pioneer and leading users of this system for dentures and dental implants in the UK and I would recommend you come and see him for a consultation
http://www.harleystreetdentalstudio.com/html/implant-dentist.html
I hope that helps
Kind regards
Mark
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