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Mine is a front tooth...I have a veneer now, but I don't know how much it will last...I am careful when I eat. They put some "fake" tooth when you first get your implant right?
Well no, that's extra. My dentist referred to it as a "flipper tooth". You have to take it out when you eat & sleep. I decided against it as I thought it was a waste of money (approx $600) and would be a pain to deal with.
I need to have 4 crowns installed. Even with dental insurance, my out-of-pocket (oop )expense wpuld be $2800, so I'm thinking of going to Costa Rica to have the work done. According to my calculations, I could have the dental work done, fly there and back, pay for my lodging, and enjoy a short vacation in Costa Rica for slightly less than my oop expense. According to this website, apparently Costa Rica is a popular destination for this type of medical relateded vacation, and the qualtiy of the work is supposedly very high. I'm wondering if anyone has had dental work performed in Costa Rica.
I'm a dentist and as the old saying goes, "veeners today, crowns tomorrow" because they will eventually fall off. I"m not saying veeners don't work, but remember those things are egg-shell thin, any kind of moisture that gets in between the veener and the tooth will pop the veener out of place (remember from science class, water expands!). If the tooth was discolored from the start I would've went right to the veener because sometimes the discoloration will show thru the veener. Getting an implant is not more traumatic than having a tooth pulled. The patient is completely anesthestized during the procedure, but more than likely you'll have some discomfort afterwards.
There are plenty of excellent clinicians outside of the US. The problem for you is that you won't know whether your dentist is qualified or not. A second problem is that if a problem pops up, how are you going to get it fixed? That exact situation happened to one of my patients, who had gone to Mexico for dental work. A root canal had failed and most of the NEWLY cemented crowns had extremely poor fits. By the way, this applies to anyone who is travelling far for dental work, even within the US.
have 2 dental implants on the side
had to have a sinus lift and bone graft
took about 10 months from start to finish
would I do it again....YES
even though I had to pay all of it out of my pocket
Great resource for patients. They also have a forum where you can ask questions and get answers. Thanks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lastra
Hi,
I was told that I might need dental implants. I changed two dentists, and one dentist that was fixing my front tooth moved, so in the middle of putting the veneer because of discolored tooth, I had to change the dentist. The other dentist ground my tooth too much, and now the veneer is falling off. So I called up my old dentist, and he told me that I might need the crown, or "even better" dental implant. I just saw some videos on dental implants, and I was wondering does anyone have them? Or has it? Was it painful etc.? Appreciate any answers.
Hi,
I was told that I might need dental implants. I changed two dentists, and one dentist that was fixing my front tooth moved, so in the middle of putting the veneer because of discolored tooth, I had to change the dentist. The other dentist ground my tooth too much, and now the veneer is falling off. So I called up my old dentist, and he told me that I might need the crown, or "even better" dental implant. I just saw some videos on dental implants, and I was wondering does anyone have them? Or has it? Was it painful etc.? Appreciate any answers.
I have 2 of them. One I've had for over 14 years. They are better than my regular teeth. No pains. No temperature sensitivity.
It takes a few visits First they extract whatever is there of the remaining tooth. Then, they prepare your jaw bone building it up a little. They put the titanium 'implant rod' in. It has a screw that will hold the fake tooth in place. For awhile, you wear a retainer that has 'temporary tooth' or 'facade of a tooth' while you're waiting for the fake tooth to arrive. One of my implants was in the upper front of my mouth, but this 'temporary' hid the gap and the rod wonderfully. (I just had to be careful what I ate when I was dining out with friends though.) Eventually, the fake tooth arrives and that's usually a quick visit because they're making sure that you can bite down correctly.
I haven't experienced any more pain with getting an implant as I would with crown work or getting a root canal. And you just take some pain killers for a day or two. However I had one implant done at one time. Then another one done a few years later.
My sister, on the other hand, had 4 done in the upper front of her mouth at the same time (because of some damage there as a result of a childhood injury). She said that it hurt a lot but I think that was because she was getting 4 done instead of 1.
Overall, I like my implants. I have other teeth that are always causing issues or requiring crowns to added or rebuilt. I think that if I could afford it, I'd replace several of these 'problem teeth' with implants. But they are expensive. In both cases, I could not get my insurance company at the time to pay for it.
Ya know, this stuff with the insurance companies has me thinking...
Dental insurance, typically, sucks. It is, typically, not worth the monthly/weekly payment. I'm not talking about CareCredit deposit funds, I mean real actual health insurance for dental problems.
But there are some pretty great dental policies and riders available for those who are lucky enough to work for companies that offer it. Some of them cover certain oral surgeries, crowns, one full set of dentures every 10 years, stuff like that. But they typically don't cover implants.
I think it'd be more cost-efficient for those policy providers to cover implants. I mean think of it...someone who comes in with their first "bad tooth" - maybe it just needs a filling. So insurance covers that. Then a few years down the line, that filling opens up, and now they have an infection in the root. So now they need a root canal. Then the integrity of the tooth is compromised, and becomes loose a few years later, and it needs to be removed. So now they grind down two perfectly healthy teeth -just- so they can affix a bridge. The "good" insurance policy is covering all of this stuff.
The total cost for a lifetime of care for that ONE bad tooth...is well over $8000. And now, because they ground down two anchor teeth, there's a higher risk that those two teeth will also need fixing. A lifetime potential for three teeth lost, for up to $32,000.
Compare with the cost of the one implant, if insurance covered that as an option: $5-6000. Once.
I think the "good" insurance policies totally should cover implants, because it's just a whole lot cheaper than the risk of future failures on a bridge.
You are correct on the insurance companies being short sighted on covering/not covering implants. My dental insurance covers Root Canals, Crowns and even a Bridge in full if done at a participating dentist ( up to 2400.00 per person per year). They cover Zero for implants but do pay for the crown portion ... Bridges can cost close to the same as an implant and they cover those .. Makes no sense
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Useful site on dental implants
