If you care to share, what would you say are the pros and cons?
Will be getting a dental implant later this summer, which will be my first one. Just curious how much maintenance is involved. I already have an idea as to cost! :O
Sorry I can't remember her name right now!!! She said she got them and was really happy with them.
I could use some, but I won't, for one, pay for them. I'm cheap. I'll get dentures first. I type medical records and I see so many problems with any implants including total knees, total hips, etc., that I refuse to get anything implanted that is foreign to my body.
My aunt got them and went through 2 years of hell. They finally had to take them out and she is down to less teeth than I have. I don't know how that worked out for her to still have some teeth. They actually refunded most of her money because of all the problems she had. She had an infection for over 2 years. She just turned 80 and it has taken a toll. She also just had to have a hip redone as it failed and broke her pelvis.
But many people have them and they are happy with them. My ex got 1 replacement tooth and, so far, things have gone okay, but it hasn't been very long.
A golf buddy went from Tweaker-mouth, to a bright shiny, Lead Actor, pearly white smile, and it only took about 18 months and nearly $20,000. The teeth look great and he has no troubles with them.
It's complete horse crap that you'll walk in with tweaker mouth, be put to sleep, and then wake up with a complete makeover, all in one day.
That's the little tiny bit I know on this subject...
I got one right after September 11 (not related to attack, just had it at the same time).
In my case it is a posterior molar. I have had no problems (and it has been a few years). I don't do anything special to care for it. I just have to remember to remind the dental hygienist that it is there when I have a teeth cleaning, since they use different tools.
Overall, I am very pleased with the implanted tooth.
I got my implants in Saigon and was kind of gangster about it. Had six done at once (8 teeth pulled) all with local anesthetic and had crowns installed a week later. Cost me $1250 per tooth including ceramic crowns. I did cheat a little by using a new medical device to heal up with, so super easy recovery, but I’m the guy who invented it.
So now I don’t look like I should be playing a banjo.
Doing business there, plus I have many Vietnamese friends. They are Buddhist, which was a huge contrast from Mormon friends. It was so refreshing to have genuine, non-judgmental friends.
I lost a molar last month. It couldn't be saved. The plan is to wait and see if some bone will grow back in within three months so I will hopefully not need a bone graft. Then the implant specialist is going to put in a post where the tooth was, and top it off with what is called an abutment. After that my regular dentist will finish it up by putting a crown on the post/abutment.
I was told that the crater where the tooth was in the jaw bone never grows back (never fills-in) without a bone graft. So the bone graft is a good thing. If they add the bone graft powder in to the empty socket right after they pull the tooth, you are barely aware that they even did it, although you will need to have a protective membrane removed a few months later. The membrane seems to just keep the bone graft powder in the socket until it heals enough to not need the membrane anymore. The dentist pulls the membrane out between the stitches and the pain level is only about like pulling a hair from your head (kind of a brief tweak of very small pain when it is pulled out). If they didn't give you a bone graft when they pulled the tooth, I would get a bone scan of the area right away and seriously consider having the dentist give you a bone graft now if the scan shown not much ability to drill a place to mount the post to, without weakening that part of the jaw bone too much.
It’s weird how you posted this subject right when I googled hockey players and teeth implants. A lot of players are getting them in the off season . Most still wait until after they retire and just do with bridges or dentures. I’ve been getting some “ pop ups” on different dental procedures now because of that search. LOL You can google “hockey players and teeth implants “, or “ NHL players and implants “, etc. Some have problems, but most don’t.
Buddy of mine had all his teeth replaced with implants in Los Algodones, Mexico (near Yuma) a couple years ago. All good. I think he was in the chair for 3 days. Cost him around US$12K. The quote he got from his Alberta dentist was C$60K!
I understand that you need a passport now to go to Mexico, and that there is a lot of crime there. For years, I have wanted to take him to Guadalajara, where I was an exchange student, and Mexico City (AKA "the D.F.") They were wonderful places when I was there in the Sixties.
We are in a border state, so maybe we could get a recommendation and get the work done in Mexico.
Can you use debit cards in Mexico? They worked just fine when I was in Europe.
The bad tooth has already been extracted, and the jaw has healed. Could the implant be done in a single session?
Not sure about those issues. The internet is your friend here. Look up dentists in Los Algodones. Lots of info available. Los Algodones is right at the border. You can park on the US side and walk across. The town exist solely as a site for dentists, doctors and pharmacists.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2018 09:43AM by Lethbridge Reprobate.
There's a town in Mexico where Americans flock to just to have dental work done. It's basically a city/village of dentists providing dental services on the cheap to Americans.
One problem though and word of caution is that if there's a problem or risk/side effect from the treatment you may be stuck with higher medical costs than pre-planned because they have been known to hold patients hostage pending payment of unexpected bills. I saw a documentary on 20/20 or 60 Minutes about that. It was pretty shocking. A woman went into labor while on vacation, and they wouldn't let her leave unless she paid her bill in full, by cash.
As for Mexico. Oh my! Do I just have a lot of relatives who have problems???
My cousin's husband owns a business that has to do with canning vegetables. He was the manager of several companies over the years. Great guy even if he is mormon. He was in Mexico about 18 months ago for some business dealings. I think it had to do with maybe purchasing vegetables. He got kidnapped by the drug cartel, who had workers in the hotel he was in. They wanted $25,000 ransom. They had called him first and threatened him and told him the workers were there watching. He happened to write down something he was told on the notepad by the phone. Because of what he wrote down, the police actually did find him quickly. They put him in a car headed for the border and he got out and has never been back. This was a town not far over the border. I'd have to ask my aunt to find out which town. The same aunt was above with the bad implants.
I should add that my aunt was getting the whole set of teeth. I'd need a full set. I still have my front teeth bottom and top. All molars gone except 2. I didn't have money for a dentist in my poor years when I started losing my teeth. I can eat obviously, so I just don't worry about it. Nobody can tell I have so few teeth except me.
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2018 01:08PM by cl2.
I would make sure someone reputable does an implant. Both my wife and I had surgeons do ours who were reputable. My mother in law had an implant done a some place in Utah Valley and they did a horrible job. At least the cap that goes on the implant was made horrible. Oral surgery is nothing to mess around with. It's close to your brain and is in an area with a lot of bacteria. Doing something wrong can kill you. Also drilling that hole in your jaw required precision. If it's out of line so is the fake tooth that bolts into the implant. Also in the US you have legal recourse. Good luck suing someone in a third world country.
I had the second to last tooth in the back pulled in late January. They filled the empty socket with bone graft powder immediately after pulling the tooth, and said to give it four months to heal and put the post in, and said to get the base and crown installed a few months after that. I studied up on the topic and decided to give it 6 months before getting the post and seven months after that to get the base and crown installed. I can tell even five months in that the socket is still healing and can't handle much pressure on it even now. I anticipate getting that tooth back in late February, 13 months later. These people who do it all in one day take a big risk.
You need the bone graft to fill the crater that is left in the jaw bone when they pull the tooth. When it heals, that will give you a flat surface of bone where the crater used to be, that is level with the rest of the jaw bone, to drill the hole that the post goes in to. Then they drill the post hole and mount it there. Over the months that follow, the bone grows in to holes in the post to create a solid interlocked bond that actually grows bone in to the inside of the post through several holes in the post. Only after that process is completed, then the base and crown should be installed. Some dentists just slap it all together in one day and figure it'll all heal eventually.
Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2018 01:37AM by azsteve.
The dentist I'm going to is a highly trained specialist in his field of dental implants. That's all he does. His office told me I may not need a bone graft, so I'm going to wait and see how it heals first. If the oral surgeon did implants who extracted my tooth, he could have done a bone graft then and there. But he doesn't do implants. So the other option now is to wait and heal to see whether I'll even need a bone graft in August.
I lost a wisdom tooth last year (first one.) That cavity has closed up since losing the tooth, by itself. Dentists don't worry about replacing wisdom teeth, and neither do I. :)
It's my second to the last tooth that was pulled several weeks ago. Upper molar.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 06/19/2018 12:30PM by Amyjo.
My mother-in-law has 4 because she had 4 primary teeth that had no permanent teeth beneath them. My wife inherited the same dentition and may eventually need up to 4 as well. Her 4 baby teeth are still holding up but may not last. My mother-in-law got the first implant about 15 years ago and the last one a year ago. She treats them just like her other teeth and has had no problems with them.
Yep... I held on to my baby tooth until the ripe old age of 43. And I still have one more baby tooth with nothing under it. On the plus side, I was born without wisdom teeth, too.
I have an implant. I had to have a bone graft. The bovine bone material they used didn't work so they had to use an expensive enzyme to trick my jaw bone into growing. The enzyme was $1,000 and the surgeon said if I bought the enzyme he would do the procedure for free. I haven't had a problem with my implant at all. At first stuff would get stuck under it and I would have to use a water pick to blast it out. After awhile my gums grew up around it more and it just feels like a regular tooth.