I need dental implants. I was given an antibiotic that killed my teeth. Im looking in to implants. At this time I want to get 5 upper and 5 lower implants so a fixed prosthesis may be attached. As time goes on, I’ll get my entire mouth done. How successful is this, what should I pay and what should I look out for.
Thanks
Modern dentistry is an amazing thing but it is heavily dependent on how much you want to pay. You need to ask several reputable dentists who specialize in restorations like yours before you begin. The old and cheaper option is just to pull your teeth and give you dentures (full or partial) or something like bridges. Those will work but they aren’t perfectly natural. There are many other alternatives now but the quality of those depends on how perfect you want the end result to look. Also, depending on your age, there are no viable artificial alternatives that can be expected to realistically last as long as natural teeth do so you will likely have to have some or all of it done again in a few decades no matter what you do.
I have accelerated enamel wear on many of my teeth and I consulted with a dentist about a lifelong plan to deal with it two days ago. The initial diagnostic lab work costs over $2000 out of pocket to have a lab mock up a wax model of my planned mouth much like an architect draws up a blueprint. Different teeth can be done over time but the average is about $1500 per tooth. All of them will need to be done over several years with the work repeated in about 25 years. The first series will cost about $30,000 which is in the range that I know other people have spent.
Dentistry cost vary widely however. Don’t have such work done in New York City if you want the best price for extensive work for example. It is worth it for some people to travel to cheaper dentist to have a lot of the work done at once.
Having a few implants myself, I’ll just emphasize one thing:
Dental insurance does not cover implants AT ALL. Which leads to Shagnasty’s discussion.
If you have the option for it, I recommend using a flexible spending account to cover the cost.
My husband had a couple of dental implants. First he had to be assessed for gum health, and he had very healthy gums, which is important. The original plan was to pull three teeth (he had already lost one tooth) and replace four, but he found a dentist who could replace the bad and the missing tooth with separate implants.
Dental insurance did cover part of it–not the actual implant, but some of the prep work. It cost about $1500 (I think for both teeth).
I think they would have rejected him for the implant if he hadn’t had healthy gums, but there are ways to work on gum health. The process took about six months. First the tooth was pulled, then a couple of months later they put in some kind of posts, and then finally they put in the implants.
There was one period, I think after he got the posts, when he was supposed to swish his mouth twice daily with some kind of stuff, and it began staining the rest of his teeth, so he stopped that.
He had veneers put on a couple of other teeth and it actually cost about the same.
This. I can’t see where you live - In Europe, people travel to Hungary and other Eastern European countries, where training under the Communists was very good, but costs of living are lower, so costs are lower. There are cooperation between dentists in one’s home country, where the initial evaluation and possible afterwork is done where you live, but the major stuff is done in the cheaper country. The smallest step is the dentist doing the work where you live, but getting the lab stuff (the implants themselves based on your casts) done elsewhere. The fullest step is taking a holiday combined by a dental clinic in Hungary.
If we’re talking implants, it’s not only money, but also time that varies wildly - I don’t know how old you are, but e.g. when my mother got implants (as opposed to inlays or crowns), she first got an injection to build up her jaw bone again, with twice-weekly or so treatments. After 3-4 months, the dentist drilled a hole into the newly strong bone and planted the screw in there, and waited another 3-4 months while the bone grew around the screw; then, the last step was to put the artifical tooth itself onto the screw.
So you need to plan at least two visits, plus if necessary the build-up of your bone.
I also think that most dentists prefer to do implants one tooth at a time, and not drill holes and sink screws for several at once, because of the stress the healing puts on the body. (It’s also less financial stress to pay one tooth vs. 5 teeth). But IAMANAdentist, and you might find somebody with the experience and data to support one multiple-teeth replacment session. Of course, as with all body things, it varies a lot from one person to the next.
For the US, I think Mexiko is the cheaper place to go, though you probably need to look carefully to seperate the well-trained doctors from the … charlatans/ scammers. If you have some kind of consumer advocate org. that has tested them, or an US dentist cooperating with a Mexikan dentist place, that would be a good start.
As Shagnasty and constanze said, it might be worth your while to look up dentists abroad. Check out sites like www.medicaltourism.com and get estimates. You might combine an interesting vacation with dental work at less then half the price and just as good.
I’ve had three implants, two lower molars and one upper - I had missing teeth due to being a victim on 1960s and 70s British dentistry, where they simply pulled teeth instead of repairing them. I needed some bone grafting for the upper jaw, which was the most uncomfortable procedure but not bad. I was offered the sedative option but declined and while uncomfortable I was surprised it wasn’t as bad as I thought it might be. I was also given a scrip for Vicodin after both the graft and the post procedures, but the pain was really minimal and didn’t last long so I didn’t take any. YMMV.
The surgeon used synthetic material. It took about an hour, then I had to wait several months before the implants.
The posts went in next, that was not a big deal. The final visit was for the faux teeth.
This was eight years ago when I was in my mid forties. I’m told they should last the rest of my natural life. So far so good…nothing has shifted and they look just like natural teeth. The total cost was about $8,000 - I’m in Michigan so I imagine it would have been quite a bit more spendy in, say, NYC or LA. I’ve read about the medical tourism and think that’s a neat idea! I don’t have dental insurance so I paid some cash and bartered for the balance. I don’t know if this is something that “regular” dentists do; mine were done by a board certified oral surgeon.
Looking at wikipedia, one word of warning, though:
TheUS uses a different numbering notation system for teeth than other countries. So if you want to go medical tourism, be very careful about the documents you get from your own dentist. Either ask if he could use the international notation system, or tell the foreign dentist that everything needs to be changed.
Which antibiotic ruined your teeth?
Don’t believe them when they tell you implants are always permanent. I had a full set of uppers that somehow became infected. By the time the infection was discovered, it was too late to save them. I had to have them all extracted, and now have a denture.
My understanding is that if you’re a smoker, you have an increased chance of failure. I, however, am not a smoker.
Question, when you get the tooth pulled do you get a fake one till the implant is in? Or are you stuck being toothless for the six months till the final one goes in.
I am confused about this. Lets say you need three teeth, next to each other replaced. Do rthey replace each tooth like a root canal would? Or do they replace the three as a set, like they would with a bridge?
In my case, I got a temporary tooth while waiting for the implant to be made. And I believe they would use three seperate teeth in your example, although I though of asking them if more than one tooth could be replaced as a set, so I don’t know about that part.
I am in precisely this situation right now. As I have written here in other dental-related threads, my teeth have bad roots; thus my implants.
Currently I have a space in my lower right jaw where three teeth had to be removed at various times due to the bad roots. The plan my dentist suggested was to place implants where two of the teeth were, leaving the middle space in the jaw unoccupied. When the time comes to place the permanent crowns on them, he will essentially create a bridge, and so fill the space.
Of course other dentists may do otherwise.
YMMV but I had a single tooth implant and I didn’t get a temporary tooth. The old tooth was pulled and then I just had a gap for a few weeks while it healed. Then I had the post put in and just had a metal spike for a while until the gum grew around it, then the crown was put on. I think it took about three or four months all in.
Also, mine cost £3,000, for one tooth. In retrospect, I should have gone to Budapest!
I think several can - tetracycline given to kids can permanently discolor teeth. I don’t think they give tetracyclines to children any more but they used to.
I didn’t have a temporary, but my replaced teeth are not really visible, and had been missing for over three decades at that point. One tooth was implanted in my upper jaw. The two on my lower jaw were next to each other, but are separate teeth, not fused together.
I also had a three-tooth bridge put on the other side, years ago; that is one unit. The reason for the implants was because due to having teeth missing since I was a child, my jaw bone was eroding somewhat and the remaining molars were leaning into the space. Apparently eroding jaw bones - especially the upper ones - are not a happy thing. You can end up with a hole between your sinuses and your mouth, or something. Also over time it can change the shape of your face.
They stopped giving it to small children around 1980 so this means anyone mid-thirties or older might have taken tetracycline. But did it do anything other than discolor our teeth/bones to the extent that they’d be “ruined”? Discolored teeth work, after all. My teeth are prone to breaking and cavities, but I inherited bad teeth from my mom besides (both she and her father had all baby their teeth taken out for lacking enamel when they came in, I was luckier to only lose four) so I’ve always assumed that the fact I was given loads of tetracycline for chronic ear infections as a toddler wasn’t responsible for anything but the need to veneer my permanent front teeth and live with them being off-white as a whole.
That’s what I was wondering. I know tet can discolor teeth, but I wondering what sort of antibiotics can ruin them. I have very vulnerable teeth (going in for my first crowns on Monday :() and was wondering if there were antibiotics I should avoid if I can.
FTR, I need to replace three teeth with implants. To my surprise, the dentist thinks I need only two implants to replace the three teeth.
I was given tetracycline as a teenager for achne. It not only stained and atrophied the enamel on my teeth. Over time they started decay no matter how well I cared for them. So at the age of 47, Im in bad shape. Appt. for implants soon.
I had an implant done on my upper front tooth and had to wear a contraption sort of like a thin clear plastic mouthguard on my upper teeth with a fake tooth on it. So the whole thing popped in and out and was rather annoying. But, besides looks, it also meant I could talk properly while the prep work was healing.
I know they can make something like a set of dentures but permanently screwed into the bone especially for full mouth restorations. My mother had a smaller set done but it is indeed like a bridge with a couple screw points holding it in.