Has anyone gotten a tooth implant?

[geoffil]

If so, would you like to share your experience? Did it hurt?

[BackInTex]

My wife got one about 15 years ago.

If she had it to do all over again she would not.

Technology improvements in process and in the implants themselves may make it better these days.

There was inital pain when they put in the implant but its just been the hassle since. A dentist she went to in Houston after we moved here tried to adjust the tightness and stripped the screw. It was a custom made implant due to the small size of her jaw and teeth and it took a while to get it replaced. She doesn not let anyone touch the implant now.

She also feels she never really needed it in the first place. It didn't replace a lost tooth, she just had extra space in the back and the dentist at the time felts it was too much space.

[SportsFan68]

I couldn't be happier with mine. I replaced the teeth that are identified as 7 and 8 on this chart.



Those two had been slipping for about a decade, same as my mom. She got a bridge which I did not like because it looked fake. She didn't like it either because it was uncomfortable and wore it only when she went out.

The pulling of the teeth hurt very little after the anesthetic wore off. The dentist had a flipper all ready to go, so I was all set until the periodontist got to the real work. I can't remember if I got the screws and the implants at the same time or if there was a delay between the two. After the anesthetic wore off, the screws hurt a little but not too bad. What little pain there was vanished by bedtime.

I can't tell the difference now. The real pain was writing the check -- very pricey here.

I had #4 pulled last year, and while the dentist would have gone ahead with an implant if I had insisted on it, he said that sometimes the implant will cause problems with the sinuses. So I basically got three crowns, one replacing the pulled tooth and two to attach it to the surrounding teeth. I'm not happy with it because it's practically impossible to floss and otherwise keep clean. I wish I'd risked the sinus problems and gotten another implant.

[mellytu74]

I have a two crowns/implants.

Both molars -- bottom right, back molar and upper left, first molar heading back. I think it's #2 and #31 (I have only one wisdom tooth, so I think I have the right teeth, according to the chart).

I broke one molar on a peanut en route home from the Final Four in 2000. Got a crown ASAP. Not a day of trouble.

The second one (#2 tooth) replaced a large porcelain inlay a couple of years ago. No problems, either.

It's harder to floss the lower one than the upper one but that is the same as when I had my natural molars, so I am used to it.

My dental coverage covered part of the cost, so it was less painful in the pocketbook than it could have been.

[Bob Juch]

My wife was thinking about some but when she heard they would cost from $1000 to $1500 each she changed her mind. (She hates spending my money.)

[ghostjmf]

BJ, your wife should go ahead & spend your money. Or she can pay you back. Whatever.

I got my implant when a root canal failed. It failed because the tooth had recalcified, which you would think would be a good thing but is not, as they never recalcify completely. This one was infected, but they couldn't drill through the recalcified section to get to the root. The dentist was sure it would crack the tooth, which would then need to be extracted, but difficultly. I had looked up the possibility of them drilling out the root through the side, but they said "that will just delay the inevitable; have that tooth pulled & get it replaced by an implant".

So I did.

As everyone says, the only real pain is in the pocketbook. My dental insurance paid for less than half, but that's better than nothing. By far.


SportsFan, you could still get that implant, but of course it's a shame you had to have two other teeth crowned to form a bridge to hold a replacement of the target tooth in place.


I recently had a filling start to break in a molar on the other side of my lower jaw than the implant. My dentist declared I needed a cap, as the insurance, in their experience, will pay for a replacement filling but then won’t pay for the cap you’ll need if the replacement filling fails within 2 years. It was an enormous filling, it’s only because they’re such a skilled dentist that they ever got it in & to last about 15 years.

But before you know it the tooth next door, also with a big filling, was also being whittled down for a cap. The cap on neighbor-tooth was of one piece with the cap on failing-filling tooth, so there was no space between them to floss, similar to what SportsFan has described. This was because I needed tooth-lengthening surgery, where they carve some jawbone away to make the tooth stick out further so it will hold a cap.

(I had also needed that tooth-lengthening surgery before they could put the cap on the tooth which eventually was pulled & replaced by the implant.)

Until then, neighbor-tooth was being used to hold the cap in place.

Meanwhile, about 2 weeks after the temp “one cap with 2 teeth on it” was in place, I managed to bite onto something sticky that pulled it off; I mistakenly chewed it. I had to pay for the replacement, of course, at about half what the original had cost. My reaction was just not to eat anything from then on on that side of my mouth until the permanent caps were in.

I had the tooth-lengthening surgery, which made both teeth stick out more, & eventually got the permanent caps on both teeth. So now I can floss between them, & they look like real teeth. Well, the one that isn’t gold does, but my dentist insists that the furthest molar, that tooth that only needed a cap so it could hold the temp cap for both teeth in place, needs to be gold because otherwise it’s likelier to break when the real tooth above it bites down.

[Bob Juch]

BJ, your wife should go ahead & spend your money. Or she can pay you back. Whatever.

She can't work so feels guilty about spending anything. I can afford to pay for implants but she won't do it. I wish my other wives had had that "problem".

[geoffil]

Thank you for all your replies.
My crown on tooth #3 cracked (I believe due to getting hit with an air bag) and the tooth decayed below the gum line. The dentist said having root canal and a new crown would just delay the inevitable. He filmed the tooth and showed me that the decay was so far down. Very gross looking. One root is very short and caused the grief with this tooth since it cracked at age 12. He said pull it and get an implant.
The Karma of this is that the woman that ran the light and hit me (totaling my car) had her house foreclosed and sold at auction. She wanted a jury trial for her ticket and made the people she hit and the witnesses come to court 4 times before she plead no contest. She also lost her medical marijuana license.

[Peter5858]

I highly recommend biting the bullet (pun intended) and having the implant. Generally speaking, the only significant pain you will incur is to the wallet. I broke tooth 19 (unknown how). Root canal not an option - hence extraction and implant. First, an oral surgeon should extract the tooth and anchor a new post for the implant to the underlying bone. They give you heavy local sedation (not unlike wisdom tooth extraction). I personally found the pain afterward to be not much at all. I then recommend that a prosthodontist do the actual fashioning of the replacement tooth to the post. Many general dentists do the second part, but their skills and sophistication for this procedure can vary widely. Consequently, your results can similarly vary. Prosthodontists do this kind of thing for a living. Your long-term dental and oral health will be much better with the procedure than without.

[ghostjmf]

Interestingly enough (at least to me!) the problem-child tooth of mine that was eventually pulled & replaced by an implant had a crown on it, at that time my 1st & only, that they drilled through to do the root canal. Well, the attempted root canal. I had asked "don't you take the crown off for that" & the dentist said "no. We drill through it, then fill up the hole(s).". I'm guessing the strategy was that if they drill out the decay & infection in the root, & plug the canal real good, nothing else can/will get in.

Geoffil, I don't know why they don't apply that kind of logic to a crack too, but they don't. Since your tooth was also cracked at age 12, I guess they figured it had "lived its functional life" at this age.

[geoffil]

Well, the attempted root canal.

How long from when you had the root canal to getting the implant? My dentist said it would be a waste to have a root canal and new crown because the decay was so far below the gum, the tooth wasn't strong enough to be viable.

Did you have the pull and implant at the same time? Thats what I want , one and done.

[mrkelley23]

I don't know if you're asking for more professional advice, but my wife the dental hygienist strongly recommends implants under certain conditions, which you apparently meet: if the tooth has been damaged for a long time, if a single crown is not practical for some reason, and if two different dentists concur. Once dentist may be trying to upsell you, or have a sweetheart deal with the oral surgeon, but two are unlikely. As you've seen in this thread, implants are not cheap, but they are far, far superior to other measures, especially in someone relatively young such as you (if I'm remembering right.)

My wife has one, and it was about two months (if I'm remembering right) from nerve procedure (sometimes it's a root canal, but sometimes it's a different procedure, which I can't remember the name of. But they have to get rid of the nerve) to implantation. If you do decide to go with an implant, I second Peter's recommendation of a specialist for the implant. You might luck into a general dentist who does great work, but it's a risk.

[ghostjmf]

geoffil:

Unfortunately, my periodontist, who I had a long relationship with as they'd done my root planing & scaling for gum disease (want to talk about pain? that's where you have pain; lots of injections of painkiller, which are of course what hurts, & lots of loud sounds that are from bone transmission of dental work to your ears), & also the "tooth lengthening" that tooth had needed before it could get a crown, wanted the extraction to heal completely before they put in the implant. That was about a 3 month wait.

You can see why, though; in both my case & yours, there was/is an infection in the gum at the root of the tooth. Dentists want to be very sure that the infection didn't spread to the jaw before they attempt to drill into the jaw to put an implant in.


An inordinant amount of time to go molar-less (it was my lower my-right-side 3rd molar in, #30 on SportsFan's diagram), but I lived through it. I could be remembering this wrongly, as a lot of other very stressful life-stuff was happening at the same time, but that's what I remember. I'll have to check for you. And then, when they did the implant, I remember another 3-month wait to be sure it was really integrated with the jawbone before they certified it ready for the crown. The implant is a post which a cap gets screwed on to, then a crown gets glued onto the cap. Going into this I had thought an implant was all-one-piece, but it makes sense that they do it this way; if one part fails, the whole thing doesn't have to be redone.

My regular dentist is the specialist who did the crown, whereas implants are among the periodontist's specialties.


Everybody should be aware that implants do have crowns, & basically have to be treated like any other crowned teeth; no chewing of anything that could break a crown, or could stick to & lift off a crown (which I had happen to the crown on this tooth before it was an implant; fortunately for me, I didn't chew on that crown like I later did on the temp crown I just had done on the other side of my lower jaw, so my dentist glued it back on at no charge). Also no pulling upward on dental floss; you push it down to the gumline, then pull it through the space between that tooth & its neighbors.


Other dentists may work other ways (more quickly) but I trusted this pair. Incidentally, it was yet another specialist I was sent to for what turned out to be the abortive root-canal attempt, & yet another specialist for the tooth-pulling (though these days my regular dentist sends people to the periodontist for tooth-pulling; they may have had a falling-out with the person they used to refer people to. I found this out when I had to have my 2 upper wisdom teeth pulled.).

[SportsFan68]

Well, the attempted root canal.

How long from when you had the root canal to getting the implant? My dentist said it would be a waste to have a root canal and new crown because the decay was so far below the gum, the tooth wasn't strong enough to be viable.

Did you have the pull and implant at the same time? Thats what I want , one and done.

I've never heard of a one and done on a pull and implant. Ghost's remarks about sequence of events and length of time seem entirely accurate to me.

I was very happy with the flipper for "in the meantime" (it was pricey for something temporary) and would have gone on with it, except your other teeth start to shift into the gap if there is a gap or if there's something flimsy there like a flipper.

[ghostjmf]

Some company, whether it's local or national I don't know, advertises on NPR their short implants & quick service. Well, OK, its NPR so they're a sponsor, not an advertiser, but they manage to get that advertisement into their mention of sponsorship. Somehow. I do love my local NPR station they're sponsoring, but I wouldn't go to this company.


You don't want to go to all this trouble & expense to have the thing not work. I trust my dentists on this one.


They thought the insurance wouldn't cover it, either, because historically dental insurance has taken the position that implants are cosmetic, for people who "think they are too good for bridges" or something. And they warned me about that, as they'd had previous patients refused coverage.


In my case the insurance did cover it. It might have been because of the poor condition of the neighboring teeth that would have had to be used for a bridge. I trust my dentists wrote that they just wouldn't be much use for that, & could provide necessary pictures of their state, too. I would maintain that whatever condition your neighboring teeth are in, why compromise them if you don't have to? (Sorry, SportsFan, I'm not trying to offend you here, but that's my opinion; I'd never heard that thing about lower-molar implants causing sinus problems, & mine hasn't.)


As far as expense, though; my implant cost about $6,000.00. My more-recent two crowns (not for use as a bridge, though one tooth was used as a temp-crown post for both teeth), seems to have cost as much. Though that did include tooth-lengthening (actually jawbone-cutting, so there's more "base of the teeth" exposed). I fail to see how "two crowns & a bridge" would cost less. But I'm not a dental insurance company.

[ghostjmf]

Someone I know well had a flipper for about 10 years. They hate hate hate it. Their dog, back when he was still alive of course, did an upward surge that knocked out 2 neighboring already-loosened teeth, apparently the same 2 as SportsFan's. Now, I know the 2 parties here are not related. At least I think I know that! Is there something weird about those 2 teeth?!


At any rate, they've finally started what they should have started long ago, but for the expense. The dentist told them that if you wait long enough, you may be old enough that your jaw just won't hold the implants. The drill of the holes was successful; they were really scared that wouldn't go right, because their jaw is so small & the bone so narrow, but the dentist (different one from mine; different city) took special care & it looks like it's all going to work out. They're in the "wait for the implants to integrate with the jawbone" stage right now.


(& yes, I did just edit this to take out direct reference to someone who doesn't want certain info posted on a public board. Y'all know who the ref is to, thanks to my original post, but I'd thank you not to put it back in. It was taken out for reasons I can't go into here.)

[SportsFan68]

. . .
In my case the insurance did cover it. It might have been because of the poor condition of the neighboring teeth that would have had to be used for a bridge. I trust my dentists wrote that they just wouldn't be much use for that, & could provide necessary pictures of their state, too. I would maintain that whatever condition your neighboring teeth are in, why compromise them if you don't have to? (Sorry, SportsFan, I'm not trying to offend you here, but that's my opinion; I'd never heard that thing about lower-molar implants causing sinus problems, & mine hasn't.)


. . .

I must have misspoken, it was an upper tooth. And my dentist may be overcautious, I dunno.

[ghostjmf]

SportsFan says:

I must have misspoken, it was an upper tooth. And my dentist may be overcautious, I dunno.

No, you didn't mis-speak, I mis-read. But why would getting an implant for #4 give you sinus problems when getting implants for #s 7&8 didn't?


At any rate, I'm glad my friend with the flipper didn't hear that stuff about the sinuses. They've had plenty of sinus trouble already & I wouldn't want it to get worse, but they've been hating, & misplacing & agonizing about it (they won't go out without it), this flipper for 10 years. They're getting #s 7, 8 & one other on top I don't know the # of.


Also, to correct myself above about the cost of crowns; I just looked back, & its lower. They wanted maybe $4000.00, the insurance payed them less, of course. But that includes the tooth-lengthening which many people don't need.


Edited for same reasons as in my other post above.

[ghostjmf]

Well, here's a quick ref on the sinus issue:


http://www.realself.com/question/sinus- ... -installed


It looks like the problems only come if the implant sticks into the sinus, so the specialist doing the implant has to make sure it doesn't. Some times that takes bones grafts to increase the jawbone, sometimes it doesn't.

I think my friend's doctor would have told them if they needed bone grafts 1st.


Same reason for edits as given in my other posts above.

[ghostjmf]

Better site, covers all kinds of problems.

http://www.dentalimplantcostguide.com/problems/

[ghostjmf]

I can answer the reason for edits to people off-list if I feel they're sincere & if they're someone to whom I want to give an answer.