Full-arch surgery day, step by step

The fear of full-arch surgery is almost always the fear of the unknown — a blank space the imagination fills with drills and pain and being awake for all of it. The real day is calmer and more orderly than the imagined one. It is a sequence of careful, well-rehearsed steps, most of your visit is unhurried preparation, and you feel pressure rather than pain throughout. Here is exactly what happens, step by step, so the blank space fills with something true.

Before anything begins: comfort and confirmation

Surgery day does not start with a drill. It starts with getting you comfortable and confirming the plan. Your surgeon reviews the plan built from your CBCT scan, you settle into the chair, and the team prepares your anesthesia. The area is thoroughly numbed with local anesthetic, and if you have chosen sedation — IV sedation is common for full-arch — it is started and adjusted to your comfort. Your team waits and checks that you are fully numb before anything else.

Once numb, the pain pathway from that part of your mouth is switched off. From here on you experience pressure and vibration — the awareness that work is happening, without the hurt. That distinction is the key to the whole day.

Removing failing teeth

If you still have teeth in the arch being treated and they are failing or hopeless, they are gently removed at the start of the same visit. This sounds dramatic and is, in a numbed and sedated patient, routine and comfortable. Combining extractions with implant placement in one surgery is a deliberate advantage of the full-arch approach — it means one recovery instead of two. There is a dedicated article on how extractions and implants combine if you want the detail.

Preparing the bone and placing the implants

This is the heart of the day, and it is designed entirely around protecting you. Your surgeon prepares each implant site in the bone using a sequence of drills that step up in size gradually, with constant water cooling to keep the bone healthy. Bone is living tissue, and slow, cooled drilling preserves the very cells that will fuse to your implants — the unhurried pace is care, not hesitation.

Then the implants themselves — usually four to six per arch — are placed into the planned positions, often with the back implants tilted to capture more solid bone and avoid the sinus or nerve. At myFullArch, this is where robotic, Yomi-guided precision does its quiet work: the haptic arm keeps your surgeon’s drill on the plan in position, angle, and depth, while your surgeon holds the handpiece and performs every step. As each implant threads in, your surgeon feels for primary stability — how firmly it grips the bone right now. That grip is important, and it is also the quiet gatekeeper for whether you get same-day teeth.

Same-day teeth, in many cases

If your implants grip firmly enough and your surgeon judges it appropriate, a fixed set of temporary teeth is attached to the implants before you leave — the “teeth in a day” many patients hope for. The temporary is built to let you smile and eat a soft diet while the implants heal underneath. If immediate loading is not right for your case, your surgeon will have explained the alternative beforehand. The full story of immediate loading is in its own article.

Closing up and the site itself

Once the implants are placed and any temporary is fitted, your surgeon finishes the surgical sites, closing gum tissue with sutures that are often the dissolving kind. What you leave with is far less dramatic-looking than patients imagine — small, closed sites and, in many cases, a new fixed smile already in place.

How long it takes and what comes next

Plan for the appointment to run a few hours. Much of that is the calm preparation around the surgery. If you were sedated, you will need someone to drive you home. In the first days, expect some swelling, soreness, and possibly bruising — all normal and managed with the medication and instructions your surgeon provides. The implants now begin the quiet, months-long process of fusing to the bone, which the recovery and timeline articles cover.

The honest bottom line

Full-arch surgery day is an orderly sequence: get comfortable and confirm the plan, remove any failing teeth, prepare the bone slowly and gently, place four to six implants on plan — with robotic guidance at myFullArch — and, in many cases, fit a fixed set of temporary teeth before you go home. You feel pressure, not pain, because the area is numb and jawbone has few pain nerves. Most of the visit is unhurried preparation. This is general education, not personal medical advice; your surgeon’s plan for your specific case, including sedation and whether same-day teeth are appropriate, always governs your day.

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Common questions

Does full-arch surgery hurt?

During surgery, no — the area is fully numbed with local anesthetic and you are usually sedated, so patients feel pressure and vibration rather than pain. Jawbone itself has very few pain nerves. Afterward, expect some soreness, swelling, and possibly bruising for a few days, managed with the medication and instructions your surgeon provides.

How long does surgery day take?

Plan for a few hours. A large portion is unhurried preparation — numbing, sedation, positioning, and confirming the plan. Removing failing teeth and placing the implants is a smaller part than most people expect, and fitting same-day temporary teeth adds time. Your surgeon will give you a schedule specific to your case.

Will I go home with teeth?

In many cases, yes. When your implants grip the bone firmly enough at placement, a fixed set of temporary teeth is attached the same day, so you leave with a smile rather than a gap. If immediate loading is not appropriate for your case, your surgeon will explain the alternative before surgery.

This article is general education, not medical advice. Every mouth is different — talk to a licensed dentist or oral surgeon about your own situation before making a decision.