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Dental implants


mint
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I had considered it, but I cannot, and a surgeon dentist at a dental hospital has told me that I must 'never' try and get it done. She did show me on the xray where important nerves are in the wrong place and I'd end up with part of my face being paralysed.

As it is I have one missing tooth, which I am very unhappy about, and I cannot even have such a simple thing as a false tooth or that sort of thing, as the fixation would rub against other teeth and loosen them.

 

So yes, very expensive, and you also need to know if you can have this done without doing damage, that you perhaps hadn't considered.

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I've been quoted between £2000 - £3000, (in the UK) depending on if they need to use extra bone (and where do they get this bone from I'd like to know?)

Luckily I'm going to try having a root filling redone and then a post and crown, first.

I think its worth virtually any expense to avoid being dependent on polygrip [:D]

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I had to lose a longstanding crowned tooth at the front a few years ago and was offerred the choice of plate, bridge or implant. Cost 1000€, 1200€ and 2000€ respectively.

Couldn't afford the implant, so I have a plate, which has the advantage that if you lose another tooth they can add one on easily and cheaply.

The CPAM hardly reimburses anything, but you might get something from your mutuelle, it's worth asking. We didn't have one at the time.

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I'm still undecided. I have lost all bar one of my top teeth - the last two were taken out in May and I have a 'nice' NHS denture.

The quote is to replace the denture with a smaller metal denture to be held in place with 3 implants and an implant using the root of the one remaining tooth.  The original quotation was just over £6000 plus the cost of the gold for the caps.  However my own dentist has quoted £5000 using ceramic caps. I have an appointment next Friday - decision day!!!! 

 

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[quote user="idun"]

Sweet17, have I remembered properly, your husband is a vegetarian????

How will he feel about cow bone in your mouth permanently?

[/quote]

LOL, id, I have human bone in my jaw permanently![:D]

Thank you everybody for the replies, advice, comments, thoughts, etc.

Last year, I had a quote for I think about 1200 euros for one implant.  As I understand it, RH, the bone thing depends on whether you have the necessary jaw bone to support the implant.

Ideally, I'd have 2 implants but, if cost or lack of jaw bone, whatever, is going to be an issue, I am happy with just one.  These are molars so it's not for the sake of appearance that I am considering this.  I like to think that I have very little vanity [:P][:)]

It's just that it's on my "chewing side" and I can't get used to chewing on the other side.

I first had a problem just before I went on the Compostelle and the dentist took the tooth out because I couldn't hang around to see if the abscess would heal.  But, blow me, I am convinced that he took out the wrong tooth because I had problems all through my walk and for months afterwards!

When I eventually got back to the dentist's, my dentist was on holiday and the colleague said that the tooth could not be saved as it was split right down its length.  So. that's when I knew the wrong tooth was removed!  It was obvious to me that the split tooth should have been the one removed and also why I continued to have pains and abscesses after the supposed decayed tooth was extracted.

So now I have a 2-tooth gap but I could really do with just the one implant.

JeanS, would you please come back and tell me the outcome of your treatment?

I now have a new dentist (as we have moved house in the meantime) but I have the distinct feeling that he was pushing a bridge because that is something he can do himself but, for an implant, I would have to go to someone trained to do implants.

BTW, what is an orthodontist called in French?

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  • 1 year later...

Thank you for that, patbell.

I haven't had my implants yet but I HAVE found a place near me where they do them. I must admit that I have been dreading what they will quote me for two.

Germany is a real possibility.

But tell me this, wouldn't you have to have visits beforehand for them to assess whether an implant would be suitable for you and also visits afterwards for follow-up? 

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My next door neighbour (Iin Luxembourg) is having this done right now.  If I understood her correctly, she was born without upper teeth on both sides (or maybe lost them as a child) anyway, at the age of 40 years, she has decided to get it fixed.  She has found a dentist (and surgeon?) in Germany who has implated collagen pieces in her jaw as there was hardly any jaw there,  and is now waiting for it all to fuse together and will then implant the teeth.  Cost to her? a mere €12 000 a side or a bargain discount pirce of just €20 000 for both !!!  She thinks she will get about €1 200 refunded by her Mutuelle.
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A good friend of mine in U.K. recently had a dental implant. Great expense (no refund for this on NHS) and quite painful but probably worth doing. She was told not to smoke for 6 weeks following the procedure and since then she's stopped smoking for good. In her case it was the smoking that caused the problems, maybe this point should be put across to the youngsters and needs to be talked about more.

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Pierre, it seems that there is a very wide variation in cost.  When I say "variation", I don't mean that anywhere is cheap.  Whichever way you look at it, it's going to cost thousands.  That's why I haven't even asked for a quote.  Will do so sometime in the spring, I think.

So......instead of a new car, I'll have 2 dental implants; that is if I am considered a suitable candidate for them.  It does depend on the state of your jaw bones and I already "suffer" from osteopenia (or whatever it's called) which is sort of pre-osteoporosis.  We'll wait and see...

Cinders, in the literature the dentist gave me to read, I really thought that smokers would not get the treatment, on the basis that their bones just would not be good enough to support the implant.  So, I am a bit surprised that your friend got it done.

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Re. my friend I think the problem was to do with gum damage rather than bone. I remember that  some years ago a neighbour of ours had serious tooth implants and had bone taken from her thigh and grafted to supplement the bone in her jaw bones,[blink] she too was a heavy smoker.

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Like you sweet 17 I have been toying with the idea of having dental implants myself, probably about the same time as you first started considering them. Having lost 5 teeth in total, one which has been replaced with bridge work, I have 3 teeth missing on the bottom left, and one missing on the bottom right. I first went to a dentist in our village, who turned out to be totally useless, he could only carry out basic fillings or else it was an extraction, I knew my teeth were starting to fall apart, but it took me too long to cotton on that the bloke didn't know what he was doing.

I have since switched to a new dentist, purely by selecting one out of pages jeunes at random, who is absolutely brilliant, he can do everything up to dental implants at his surgery, and even has a x-ray machine to do full mouth x-rays, plus his surgery is totally modern. I did get a devis from him, and I think it was in the region of about €6000 just for either 2 or 3 implants on one plate, this was a while ago and at the time I thought it to be too expensive, and did not proceed and threw away the devis. There was some discrepancy with the devis as I sent it to my mutuelle who queried about €3000 of the devis which was not itemized. So if I am to proceed I will ask for another devis and challenge any extra amount added this time.

I have been doing some research on the internet and came across several videos on youtube, some more gory than others. I have added a link one of the videos that shows an implant being fitted to a bottom set of false teeth. I started getting a bit squeamish when the guy doing the demonstration went from a 2mm drill bit to a 2.8mm drill bit, then when he opened the sterile drill bit supplied with the implant, [:-))], That must have left a big hole!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nGkuuAUs7kk

Something else to consider if the above video link has not already put you off, how good is the dentist carrying out the operation, another link from the BBC flags up the problem people have had when the dentist drilled too close to a nerve in the mouth, causing pain and numbness, so I think you need to be pretty confident in the dentist who is proposing to blast a big hole in your bone knows what he/she is doing.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-18366437

Sorry, can't get the supplied links to 'lite up', so you will have to copy and paste them.*

*Edit: The lights are now on my links, courtesy of Norman who kindly answered my query on another thread as to how you activate pasted web links.

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Grecian, thank you so much for posting.  I shall look at your links tomorrow evening when I have more time to look and absorb as I do like horror films and being scared out of my wits!

Since first starting this thread, I have been recommended to go to a dentist (whom I have met on a couple of social occasions) near my old house in the Charente Maritime and, whilst he doesn't do the implants himself, he has someone come from Saintes or nearby who does nothing but implants and makes monthly visits to his surgery to do them.

I do hope that I shall feel fully confident to proceed, should my jaw bone be considered suitable.  And yes, I have thought of the pain and the potential problems but I still don't think that I can face any sort of bridge or plate if I have to take it out and clean it and soak it in some solution overnight.  I am determined to be very brave and er.....take it on the chin...ggrrrr...

I, too, had a very bad dentist initially and now I have one that is a bit better but I can tell that he is looking to his pocket and not at my interest.  He wanted me to have a bridge and, when I said I wanted to explore the possibility of implants, he merely gave me some literature to read and wouldn't even discuss it with me.  I could tell that that was only because he didn't do implants and that, if I went down that route, he wouldn't get hold of my lolly.  BTW, this is a British chap so I can tell when he is just flanelling!

Yes, it is a lot of money, no getting away from that.  I don't have the level of mutuelle cover that would pay me more than a nominal sum for the implants.  As I have said, it's the cost of a secondhand car probably or perhaps less than, say, a hip replacement paid for privately in the UK.

What is making me take a bit of time is that I hope we will sell our other house this year and then I'll have every confidence to go right ahead.  I know I can have it done anyway but I don't like to spend such a large sum from the modest amount we keep for a rainy day.  I am speaking metaphorically, of course, as it's done little else than rain for weeks on end!

Clearly, it's not something you want to rush into.  I drew up a list of pros and cons and there is no doubt that it's better to have a procedure that is not invasive but sometimes you just know what you'd rather and then you have to throw caution to the winds[:D]

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Grecian, it's very good of you to activate those links.

I read the BBC article and those stats there don't look at all good, do they?

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), I couldn't watch the video because the site says the video is unavailable.  Just as well perhaps; there is such a thing as knowing too much [I]

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Hi

I had an implant. I fell while jogging and my front tooth 'broke' 3 months later and the dentist and I realised it must have been cracked and loosened from the fall.

I didn't find the implant procedure painful at all - maybe a bit uncomfortable at times but no pain. I drove there and drove home. I had no problems.

The worst part was using the well known dental disinfectant which discoloured my teeth slightly but I only had to use it for a week and then had the teeth polished.

My 'implantologist' was also a dentist who specialised in just implants. He told me he had given his father (aged 75) four implants.

I've never regretted having it done. It cost about £1500 nearly 4 years ago.

Good luck.
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ps

Forgot to add that I think mine was titanium, not any kind of bone.

Maybe it was titanium encased in bone (?) can't remember all the details..

As I said, absolutely no problems. From memory I seem to remember that he wouldn't have done it if I had been a smoker.

L.
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