No, this is not a duck hunting thread. It's medical in nature. And intended as a "heads up" to all who use steel shot.

Or, "how I found out the hard way".

Many years ago, at least 15 probably, we were eating a fine roast mallard dinner. And I bite into a nice piece of breast meat, and bit on a steel shot pellet. Now, we've all done that. But this was different. It was REALLY a hard bite and REALLY hurt. Not like ever before.

Now, fast forward to about 2007 and the night when the pain from the abscessed tooth hit. The exact same tooth, a molar. It was right up there with kidney stone pain. The root canal was about $1,500 in charges from the endodontist and the crown another $1,500 with my regular dentist. The dentist said then "you know, this tooth may be cracked".

A couple years ago, more trouble with it, and the dentist says, "you've got an infection from that thing in your jaw bone". You know the infection is in the bone when the root nerve has already been removed.

And just recently, more of the really bad pain in the jaw. So, I get shipped off to the periodontist who does an extraction and will do an implant. That's $5,000. That's a process that takes months. They have to do a bone graft.

Then back to the dentist for the crown that goes on the implant, and another $1,500.

You do the math. That was one pricy duck.

So...take my advice and work hard at finding those pellets in ducks and geese before eating or serving to your family and guests.

Actually, I think a device would be good, like a magnet, that you could run over the meat with to register the presence of steel shot. But I've never seen anything like that for sale.

It's a really serious problem, no kidding. So take this warning in the helpful spirit intended.

You are using a very expensive dentist.

The bad news is your implant crown should cost more than $1500. There will be another charge for the abutment which will push the cost well over $2000 for the implant supported crown.

I have seen a metal detector at Cabelas that is specific for finding shot in birds. I really don't recommend using one since I am a periodontist that does a lot of implants

SDR, since you're a periodontist let me ask you something. I'm not running into many locally in that business who are also shooters. And the question I'm having is what effect on shooting all this is going to have.

I know 22s are OK. I guess handguns would be too. But what about the recoil effects of the 30-06 and 12 ga heavy duck guns on the implants. Is that going to shake those loose? In the case of shotguns, I've already had some bad effect of lots of dove shooting on a really bad back/spinal condition.

The other thing is, they said no "vigorous activity" for the first three weeks, which ends the weekend deer season starts. They seem to think the bone graft needs time to mold or solidify to the jaw bone I guess. How do you feel about hard kicking guns during that time?

And long term, is shooting the heavier typical NA sporting weapons going to risk the implant?

..I wonder what they tell someone who's a boxer or football player about this...

There shouldn't be any negative effect of shooting with your implant. Maybe if you shot Saeed's .577 TRex and it jumped up and smacked you in the face hard. But even with that your other teeth would be on the ground before the implant.
As far as healing is concerned I really can't comment on your case without know what grafting is done but you should be fine to hunt when your season starts. Good luck

I use a pinpointing probe to detect shot in birds or bullets in big game. I sell them normally for $128 but until the end of this year, they are $110.46. Shipping anywhere in the Cont'l US is $5.95. Cheap insurance to avoid just what Shack advised. Email me for info on how to order. LDK