i love mamapedia, i walk around all day with questions in my head I just have to ask you ladies, then i usually forget them, BUT tonight i remembered, If anyone has an info on dental implants, i would love to know more about them, Ex. Cost, do they use metal, how long to complete it, how painful, what age can they do it?
I ask because my mothers bridge? broke and they recommended this but she has issues with metal sensitivity and that might be an issue, and my dd has medical issues that might result in missing adult teeth, we don't know yet.
thanks for any help!
My brother had an implant, it was 20 years ago. He was told they don't work well if you don't have them done when the tooth being replaced is extracted. Not to say it hasn't changed in 20 years but you may want to look into that since she clearly has been without the teeth for a while.
If you cannot tell my brother has had his implant for 20 years and never had a bit of trouble with it.
I am actually in the process of having one done now. I have already had the surgery and have an appointment in january to have it finished. The screw is in just waiting for the healing. The surgery was not bad either is the recovery. I am also having a cap replaced on the tooth next to the implant. I have no insurance but have a plan called carington. You get 20% off with it and my total cost was 5700.00. Horrible I know so I'm going the end result is worth it! I have heard that you can't even compare then to a bridge. Good luck.
My husband had one done about 18 months or so ago. He lost the tooth almost 2 years ago, when it cracked in half. They went in to see about a crown or whatever, and it just crumbled, so it all came out. Set him up for an implant about 4 months (?) after the extraction. It is surgery. They put them "under". What they actually do is drill into the jaw bone and implant-really they screw it into the bone-- a titanium "root". The bone and titanium actually will fuse over time. Once the implant procedure is done, there is a short waiting period (a couple of months ?) for the implant to heal. The put a little cap thingee on it (not like getting your teeth capped, but like a little cover thing that is very temporary) until it is healed. Once healed, they take the tooth replacement (which they mold during the interim) which is I think made up of the same stuff they make tooth colored fillings (not sure on that part, it might be ceramic)... anyway.. They pop that on the titanium "root" and they are done.
My husband hasn't had one tiny issue of any kind, since the actual tooth was removed. No issues with the implant procedure. No issues with the recovery. No issues with the tooth part. Nothing.
Yeah.. it was pricey. Altogether, including the extraction, it cost around $3400. The extraction was done by our regular dentist. He referred him out to an implant surgeon (specialist) for the rest.
ETA: How long has she had the bridge? Over time, the bone (that the implant would be screwed into) deteriorates if there is no tooth/implant in place after an extraction or lost tooth. She may not have sufficient bone left to DO a proper implant. Here's more info that might help explain: http://www.baltimorecosmeticimplantdentist.com/bone_densi...
Most of the responses are pretty good examples of what the implants are like. My husband has a top, back molar done with the implant. He had it started spring of 2010 when a tooth broke. He was put under, and the tooth was pulled. They then had a compound of something, (cement)and mixed it with some of his own blood they had drawn earlier, and made a thick paste and packed it into the hole where the tooth had been and a couple stitches done to hold it. He had to let that harden for 3 months and because it had his blood mixed kin, it bonded to his jawbone. Because it was an upper tooth it was very close to the sinus cavity and he was told not to blow his nose or sneeze for 6 weeks. HA, who can not sneeze? (It could have blown out the sinus cavity if he had) Well, he did a great job somehow and didnt sneeze or blow his nose. So it went fine. Then they drilled into that hard compound and put in the metal post. It had glue on it to hold it in. He then went back a few weeks later and they found the post hadnt solidified and had to take it out and put in a new one. Weeks later he had to go back in and found the new post was solid and then they started the process with the dentist to build the fake tooth and "install" it to the post. Its fine, and he has no problem with it now and it saved the tooth next to it, and kept the teeth on the bottom from having nothing to bite on when chewing. It took nearly a year from start to finish, and cost about $5000. Good thing we have insurance but our share was still a lot.
I had an implant done on a tooth that was pulled due to damage done by a permenant retainer. It was recommended over a bridge because they last longer and the tooth is easily visible. I was sedated for the procedure because the tooth was extracted at the same time. I'm not sure what type of metal was used but they implant a type of screw post into the jaw bone where the tooth was. They then cover the post temporarily and after the site has healed you have to have a crown placed over the post above the gumline. In general they last longer than the bridge, they do not have to adjust any other teeth to make it fit properly - sometimes they do with the bridge. The downside is they are very very expensive and cost prohibitive for a lot of people. I was lucky because I was having my wisdom teeth removed at the same time and the charge for the sedation went on my insurance. With insurance the cost of the implant was almost $2000. The whole procedure took about 2 hours (with wisdom teeth removal) and all in all it after the inital numbness wore off the site was acutally less painful than the sites where my wisdom teeth were removed.
I figure they can do it at any age but I did have to have a Doctor clearance note in my chart to undergo the sedation. My dentist recommended the implant because of the visibility of the tooth. He did say that I would have been fine just pulling the tooth and not having the implant done.
I had one done 2 years ago, I have great insurance,paid under 2000 Dollars.
I had the best Endodontis,I had a tooth missing for almost 15 years, the bone was almost gone.The first dentist wanted 10.000 Dollars, because he suggested a bone implant yada,yada....the " saint" dentist gave me a catscan and said, I don't need a bone graft, she will just use a shorter post, which by the way is made out of titanium.I have a nickel allergy, so that was working for me.The procedure was completely painless, never needed a painkiller....
Implants are expensive. They are going into your bone structure and I personally don't know what side (cancer) effects it will have later to have a metal thing en grafted in your mouth. I needed to make a choice on that and I chose the bridge. If it breaks, I would have to get another as uncomfortable as the current one is.
They are EXPENSIVE!!! I am missing one tooth and they want $3000 for the implant. Yikes!
