Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Bridge or implant??

Ahhhh so many tooth dramas.... All the wisdom teeth need to come out, and that'll probably happen in the next 6-8 weeks.

I also have a false tooth which is on a denture type thing, which I remove daily to clean. It's also only supposed to last upto about 5 years, and it's now about 9 years old....

So I'm looking at more permanent options. The dentist said my options are either a bridge or an implant. The dentist is pushing for a bridge where they file down the two teeth next to the missing one, and use them as "anchors" and make a false tooth which attaches to two caps that cover the filed down teeth. Mmmm filed down teeth...

Second option is to get a tooth implant. They put a titanium rod into your mouth which attaches to the jawbone, and once it all heals up, they attach a tooth to the rod. Eww.

Neither option sounds particularly appealing, and the dentist pushes the bridge (which he does so gets the money for....) whereas Andrew thinks the whole filing down the teeth thing is pretty permanent for those teeth, and why ruin them??

Has anyone else had a missing tooth they've had to replace? I'd love to hear people's thoughts to help with my decision!

1 comment:

Louise said...

Well, I've had both: all my wisdom teeth out in one hit (and yeah, DEFINITELY get it done by an oral surgeon rather than your dime-store dentist - I had almost no swelling or pain. And get all the drugs they give you).

I also have a hole where a tooth used to be, because I didn't want to pay $4000+ for a bridge, and I wasn't happy about destroying the tops of the two perfectly good teeth on either side to do it either. I'd do the implant, if it's in an obvious place.

good luck!