Dental work - implants vs. bridge

In My Humble Opinion
21

I’ve had an implant for about five years now, and it’s problem free. Since it was a rear-most molar, a bridge was impractical, so it wasn’t a difficult decision for me. Paying $3500 for it was unpleasant (though it’s cheaper nowadays), and I actually delayed it several months just to kick it into the next tax year (so I could pay for it out of a much larger medical FSA).

As I frequently tell anyone who’ll listen, if you add up all of the pain and discomfort, it’s similar to getting about two regular fillings (i.e., not really that much). After sufficient novocaine, the only thing that was painful was muscle aches from having to keep my mouth open for so long when the put the post in.

I highly endorse getting implants when they’re needed, but as others have said, brushing and flossing and keeping your own teeth is preferable.

22

>are you saying that when they first remove the tooth, there’s a passage from the sinus to where the tooth was???

Yes, depending exactly on what you mean by “passage”. There’s a hole that is filled with nothing more solid than clotted blood and tissue that has swollen to fill it. That’s why you’re not supposed to suck or blow vigorously. Really, what matters is that you don’t create a big differential pressure between your sinus (or nose) and your mouth, and also between these and your bloodstream. If you have the body awareness to manage all this, I think you could go SCUBA diving if you liked.

Your lower jaw is a bow from the joint at one side to the other. It has to be strong to handle the sort of blows you might randomly get, like falling down and hitting your chin.

Your upper jaw isn’t like that. It’s essentially a thickened ridge in the bony balloon that houses your brain - and like the other thickened ridges in that, it has hollow passages called sinuses. I hear nobody is sure what these are for - making the bone lighter, or clogging to trigger you to roll over during the night so you don’t get stiff muscles, or who knows what. We vary, but lots of us have molar roots sticking up into the sinuses there, and some of us (like me) have a pretty thin layer of bone as the only anchor for these roots.

23

I can’t say much that hasn’t already been said, but I’ve had an implant for one of my front teeth for a few years now, and it’s been perfect. Cleaning between the “tooth” and the gum is easy with floss. I don’t know how big a difference there would be between my situation and a molar as described in the OP, though.

Having the hole drilled for the implant, while painless (except the shot beforehand), involved listening to some very interesting grinding noises from my own head!

24

Sorry to burst everyone’s bubble, but 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.

25

Just as a side note- if you live near a dental school, check and see if the student clinic does implants. At least where I am, these are dentists doing graduate work and both the implant and the crown cost about half what it does in private practice. Which. here, adds up to ~$1500-2000.

YMMV.

26

Not much more to say – in my case, the bridge alternative was favored 2 years ago because one of the adjacent teeth was already crowned and in need of upgrading (but that after half a lifetime of stalwart service – gold is teh shizzle for dental appliances) so only one “normal” tooth had to be altered. And I was in a lowered-cash-flow period. So far, so good.