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Patient’s perspective


surgeon’s knife Going under the


As his treatment enters its final stages, Patient NC marvels at the advances in dental surgery that have kept his pain to a minimum


“R


elax, it’s just tissue augmen- tation. Not difficult. Think


about it as oral plastic surgery,” the good Dr Jacobs soothed. Oh Lord, plastic surgery! So, it’s


finally come to this: the painful reality of middle age kicking in. But through my mouth this time. Now, I know we’ve been on a bit of


a journey (for those following this) to two new front teeth – and so far, I agree, it’s been pretty straightfor- ward – but this absolutely was not part of the equation. I admit, somewhat reluctantly,


that there have been occasions when the attractions of the cosmetic surgeon’s knife have floated momen- tarily into my consciousness. For example, when my Significant Other found this talented – for that read: expensive – guy to “fix” her already, as far as I could see, gorgeous eyelids. Or rather closer to home, when my loving family pointed to a magazine picture of Jack Nicholson’s “moobs” and groaned: “Daaaad! Gym or knife?” Think I’m alone? C’mon guys,


how many of you out there haven’t thought about it, even for a minute? Hold back the years, just a little? Go on, admit it: you hit a certain age and there are a couple of websites you maybe visit just to see how painful it might be to reach that new you. Then, of course, you dismiss it as total nonsense and delete the “history” on the laptop, just in case someone catches you visiting strange websites. Ringing any bells? But here we are. So, let’s do it.


“We’re” cutting out some tissue from the roof of my mouth and moving it to the space above where my new front teeth are going to be. Easy…he says (Yeah right!).


40 Scottish Dental magazine Now a quick aside: would one of


you bright sparks please invent the painless injection into the roof of the mouth: it’s the one thing left that is giving “pain free dentistry” a bad name. Okay, you’re all moaning that it can’t be done: try that argument over penicillin! Layman’s terms here I’m afraid;


a section of tissue removed, positioned under a raised flap at the front of my mouth, stitched back up, and me back out in the street in 40 minutes. Amazing. What’s remarkable, from the


patient’s (my) perspective, is that what was clearly a significantly invasive procedure – to take the tissue – resulted in only a matter of mild discomfort post-operatively, for a few days. After that, it left a dull sensation over the contact area that two to three weeks later also departed, returning the area to normality. What was even more noteworthy


was that having been given all sorts of dire warnings about what the “rebuild” site would look like post- operatively, none of it came to pass. Was it luck or skilled surgery? The latter, I suspect. The irony, of course, is that in


my case, sadly, few people will ever actually see the creative genius of Stephen Jacobs’ plastic surgery (except you, of course). It will, for the most part, be hidden above my smile line. I’m hardly going to roll my top lip up and suggest friends gaze upon my new, surgically enhanced gum, am I? What will, however, be more than


apparent to those of you who under- stand the technicalities of these amazing things, is that creating something from nothing in such astonishing detail is, in my humble view, a remarkable achievement.


“I admit, somewhat reluctantly, that there have been occasions when the potential benefits of the cosmetic surgeon’s knife have floated momentar- ily into my conscious- ness”


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