Thanks to a hillbilly upbringing and the kind attentions of the US Navy, I have a lot fewer teeth than I feel I need. The upshot of it is that I’m wondering about dental implants for molars. There is a place around here that does them but I’m not exactly sure what is implied and what the downside is. Of course, the people selling them look astounded when you ask them about any drawbacks but I’m sure there must be some.
Does anyone have the whole truth on these things?
Thanks
Testy
For starters, it requires a surgical procedure to implant them, with all the possible risks of surgery, like infection. The implant can fail to “take”, although that’s usually a consequence of having too little jawbone in the area. There’s a healing process involved, which will involve “discomfort” and I think you can’t wear dentures or anything like that while healing - which may or may not be a problem for you.
That’s all I can think of off the top of my head for bad effects.
Broomstick.
Thanks for that. Any idea on the percentage that “fail to take?” As far as the dentures and whatnot, that isn’t a problem but I’m worried that if I don’t take steps now it might become one. Of course pain is always a problem but I figure that is why there are narcotics. LOL
Thanks again and best regards
Testy
There is a drawback to them being rigid titanium studs planted directly in your jawbone: they don’t have the natural cushion that a regular tooth’s roots have. Your bite doesn’t stop when your teeth touch; there’s still a little bit of travel that you can get by biting down harder. The nerves around your roots are a feedback mechanism that tells your jaw muscles when to stop. You don’t have this with implants, and there’s no cushion, so implants may fail in situations where real teeth would not.
This also plays into another drawback, which is that it’s a bad idea to create a bridge starting on a real tooth and ending on an implant. This is because the end of the bridge that’s on the real tooth will move up and down as you eat due to the natural cushioning, and while it does that, it’s acting like a big lever that’s torquing that implant, which doesn’t have the freedom to wiggle (until it breaks, when it suddenly has a lot of freedom to wiggle).
I don’t think the percentage that “fail to take” is very high any more. Don’t quote me on this, but I seem to recall being told that the success rate is above 90%. Bear in mind that that would have been coming from a guy who was interested in selling me a dozen or so implants. 
Testy, I didn’t read a lot of negative press when I had mine done. I had molar go bad and had to be pulled. Basically there are three options, 1) don’t do anything, which can lead to the other teeth migrating to fill the gap, not good. 2) Get a bridge. My thinking was why destroy two perfectly good teeth, and then have to deal with the problems inherent with having a bridge X years from now.
Another 4-5 months go by, the implant appears to be solidly implanted. I go to the reqular dentist who attaches an abutment and then a crown. The abutment mates the crown firmly to the implant. That was about 3 years ago.
Results? I’m glad I did it. Since it’s a dead piece of metal, I do not have the elasticity of the root, etc., but I’m just careful how I chew. I chew on ice cubes no problem, but I am careful, more so for the crown breaking rather than a failure of the implant.
The number one drawback? No dental plan that I know of the US will cover the cost. All together, it ran about $5500, with my dental plan picking up about $1300 which covered the tooth removal, the abutment and the crown. I paid the rest out of my own pocket. According to some of the dental plans I talked to, the implant is still considered a non-approved procedure. Which probably explains why my specialist who did the work has marble tile floors in the waiting room. 
If implants were covered, the floors would be inlayed with diamonds and saphires.
My husband’s plan (and mine, by proxy) cover implants, at least to some degree. My husband looked into it and decided against it due to the length of time it takes to complete the process. However, he couldn’t adjust to his denture, so he’s thinking about it again.
I am having a tooth pulled in the near future and I’m very interested in getting an implant. I have a friend that spent about $17K getting hers done, and she’s happy with it. So is my ex-boss.
I used to work for an oral surgeon that did implants. He said they were very good options IF AND ONLY IF the patient would take care of their teeth. He mostly did reconstructive surgery, not replacements due to decay/loss.
He said that patients who didn’t take immaculate care of their mouths post-surgery would probably not have success with implants. One thing I know, he wouldn’t do implants on anyone who smoked; you had to have quit at least one year prior to the surgery.
ntucker
Thanks, I don’t eat ice and super hard things anyway so that may not be a big problem. I just don’t want to be limited to griel or the like in the near future. 
As far as the bridge thing, that is mostly the reason I am thinking about the implants. It seems that I wind up destroying one or two teeth to make one synthetic one. It would seem that the stress on the remaining real teeth must increase when used as a bridge, leading to their earlier failure. Good news on the >90% success rate.
BF
Yikes! The cost seems pretty hellish on these things. Nevertheless, avoiding the migrating teeth and the rest of the problems seems worth it. I’m sure my dental plan wouldn’t cover more than a few percent of this so it’s out-of-pocket. What the hell, they seem worth it.
Kalhoun
“$17K?” I suspect my entire head isn’t worth that much! How many did your friend have done? I’m leaning toward having this done but I don’t want to have to sell my forstborn male child for the job.
Redtail
Your ex-boss sounds interesting. As far as my own case, I’m 50 now and lost the teeth when I was in my early 20s in the Navy. Since then I haven’t lost any.
I’m curious though, what did the dentist have against smoking. Admittedly it is bad for you but I don’t know of any impact on the dental work aside from staining. Is there something else?
Thank you all for your time and answers.
Regards
Testy
Smoking reduces the mouth’s ability to heal, thus interfering with the chances of success with implants. And if you’re spending all that money, you want the procedure to be successful! I have a couple of friends who have the implants. They are glad to have them, but the cost is great. One friend told me that the cost of her implants was comparable to a second mortgage … :eek:
Egad! I had no idea they were this expensive. I suppose they would be more common if they weren’t. Thanks for the info on the smoking/healing connection. I really had no idea about that. A small chunk of ignorance reduced there.
Thanks again
Testy
Dental implants are not the best solution to every dental problem.
About 10 years ago I had a serious periodontal problem which resulted in the loss of several teeth. I had already lost some previously, and was already wearing a bridge. According to the xrays, My upper bone had receded, and even the remaining teeth were in jeopardy. All my teeth were in perfect condition, there just wasn’t enough bone to hold them in. This is not uncommon on my father’s side of the family; everyone has a predisposition toward periodontal disease and bone loss.
So after consulting with two oral surgeons, I decided that the best thing would be to have the remaining upper teeth extracted, and to get a full set of upper implants.
Part of the procedure was to get a bone graft on each side, to provide additional stability where the sinus cavities are. This was very painful and very expensive, but I figured would be worth it in the long run.
I eventually had the upper appliance installed, and had a nice new set of teeth that should last a lifetime.
Wrong. About two years later, I started experiencing what felt like toothaches in my uppers. The dentist said it was my imagination, or maybe some temprary pressure on a nerve, and I shouldn’t be concerned about it. The pain continued, and then I noticed that my upper gums started slightly bleeding and hurting when I brushed my teeth.
I went to a periodontist, who discovered that there was a huge infection around all my implants, and I was losing them – plus, it was having an effect on my general health. He had to remove the appliance, cut my gums all the way around, down to the bone, and remove all the implants (some of them simply fell out). He cleaned out the infection, put me on antibiotics and sent me a bill for several thousand dollars.
I had to wait several months for the swelling to go down and for the gums to reestablish their structure, before being fitted for a full upper denture, which I should have gotten in the first place.
I’ve lost track of how much money I’ve spent on my teeth, including some work on the lowers (last year alone was about 25K). I literally could have bought a house with that money, not to mention the pain and suffering. I wish there were someone I could sue, to get even a part of the money back, but there isn’t.
I understand that now, thanks to cases like mine, they make you sign a disclaimer before getting implants, to the effect that there’s no guarantee you won’t lose them.
The only thing I can add is that the reading I’ve done implies that implants are much more successful in the lower jaw. The upper jaw usually doesn’t have the bone mass to hold implants securely.
Uh Oh------What a horror story.
I am missing one of my rear molars just recently--------tooth was beautiful but gums were bad. Kept getting infected so my dentist pulled it.
What the hell----only one tooth gone right? No problemo. No big dealo.
Not that easy really.
I still have a good tooth on top and nothing underneath------so chewing on that side of my mouth can get very painful.----especially with hard objects like peanuts.
Have considered an implant to replace that one lost tooth so that I can chew normally on that side of my mouth without pain.
Heard it was expensive. I could do that.
Heard about the problems with dental implants that many posters have described-------
Don’t think I want to do that===dental implant.
Will probably just keep on training my tongue to shove things around better so it doesn’t hurt.
panache45
That was a real horror story, especially the health problems. It may be that I have to re-think this idea but I’m unsure what can be done.
Thanks and I hope your problems have gotten better.
phouka
Well, I’d need some upper and some lower so maybe this isn’t the best idea for me. Besides, the term surgery chills my nlood. :eek:
ombre3
Yeah, I’m doing much the same as yourself, shoving things around to avoid hurting myself with peanuts or whatever. Trouble is, I understand that doing this uses the remaining teeth harder and makes them fail more quickly.
Thanks all
Testy
I believe she had most of her mouth done. My understanding (from my husband’s periodontist) is that they put “anchor” implants in and then attach permanent bridges to those established anchors. I am still in the process of getting my gums in shape (I have an appt. Friday) so I will ask more questions in the coming weeks. I am only losing one tooth at the moment, but we’ll see what happens in the coming years.
There are good and bad stories regarding dental implants. a bad situation, for example, is a lady in florida who has a site called dental fraud in florida see her site. It is important to seek several opinions because of so much greed in the dental profession. Also, ask for any treatment in writing and get a copy of your file at each visit. Files often disappear if something goes wrong. Some people end up worse off after dental treatments and that is something to consider. If the teeth you have are good it might be wise not to agree to any work on them!]
PHLT
PHLT
Thanks for that. After reading about the cost and panache45’s horror story, I’m leaning toward leaving well-enough alone. I’d wind up getting it done in the Middle East which isn’t a world-class center for dental work anyway so the problems could be worse.
Thanks again
Testy
Link?