I have an unusually bad dental situation. Nearly all of my teeth need to be extracted; nearly half are broken at the gum line.
My preference is to want to get implants for all of them, not to go to dentures.
This is where it gets hard with the questions.
In theory, I have some minimal insurance that would cover extractions, but in practice it has almost no providers. For example, one of the few providers accepting it is booked until into 2019. And bone grafts aren't covered anyway.
So that makes it likely to just pay for everything. Calling local oral surgeons, the prices seem to range from about $220-$900 per tooth, plus about $750-$900 for a bone graft. One has an estimate of $900-$2000 for both per tooth.
Some want $100-$200 for a consultation even to say their prices.
Saying 15 teeth, that alone is perhaps $20,000 for extractions and bone grafts. Then the implants seem to be about $5,000 each from a quality provider - maybe $3,000 if you 'shop around' for value - another $50k-$75k.
It's hard to know where to find value, how to find quality, even what questions to ask. You find there are a lot of things about quality you don't even know to ask.
And then there's the international option. I don't know if providers in this forum have a bias against that as a competitor, but of course there are legitimate risks and tradeoffs and benefits with the option.
But try to find the better options on that - it's easy to find many options, but not to feel you have found the 'good ones'. The resources mainly seem to be paid referral sites, and the providers' own websites.
Which makes sense - who has actually gone to hundreds of offices to compare them around the world? That'd cost a lot and I know of no independent service reviewer who does that.
Which leaves little but 'word of mouth' type info like someone saying 'I went there and here's my experience'.
It's a lot to look at something like a $100k expense for this. I could be pretty sure of good quality with a local provider for that $100k figure. But if I could find as good or better internationally for less than half and save $50,000 that's attractive.
Currently, I spent yesterday in some pain from the root/sinus area on the left with 4 teeth broken at the gumlines (I basically have the two front teeth left for biting upper/lower). Last night aleve/tylenol made the pain go away.
And even if I spend a lot to do this, there's how long they'll last. I hear 10 years, I head 30 years... I wouldn't want to have to re-purchase this in 10 or 15 years.
And then there's the question whether I should consider other options I've barely heard about in some cases - not only dentures, but things like bridges so multiple teeth use one implant.
Don't really know the tradeoffs there in cost/quality/how long it lasts/etc.
Clearly I've spent years putting off getting this done as more teeth have broken off. Just thought I'd share the experience of looking for the right option and listen to comments with suggestions.
One other option is looking for places in the US that are good and more affordable - I remember a 'dental school' in North Carolina that did a great job on something if I could find them again, if they do this work (probably not).
And then I see these 'low-cost implant' services advertising but don't feel comfortable with the quality yet from them unfortunately. And anyone who can be asked tends to have their own interests to protect.
My preference is to want to get implants for all of them, not to go to dentures.
This is where it gets hard with the questions.
In theory, I have some minimal insurance that would cover extractions, but in practice it has almost no providers. For example, one of the few providers accepting it is booked until into 2019. And bone grafts aren't covered anyway.
So that makes it likely to just pay for everything. Calling local oral surgeons, the prices seem to range from about $220-$900 per tooth, plus about $750-$900 for a bone graft. One has an estimate of $900-$2000 for both per tooth.
Some want $100-$200 for a consultation even to say their prices.
Saying 15 teeth, that alone is perhaps $20,000 for extractions and bone grafts. Then the implants seem to be about $5,000 each from a quality provider - maybe $3,000 if you 'shop around' for value - another $50k-$75k.
It's hard to know where to find value, how to find quality, even what questions to ask. You find there are a lot of things about quality you don't even know to ask.
And then there's the international option. I don't know if providers in this forum have a bias against that as a competitor, but of course there are legitimate risks and tradeoffs and benefits with the option.
But try to find the better options on that - it's easy to find many options, but not to feel you have found the 'good ones'. The resources mainly seem to be paid referral sites, and the providers' own websites.
Which makes sense - who has actually gone to hundreds of offices to compare them around the world? That'd cost a lot and I know of no independent service reviewer who does that.
Which leaves little but 'word of mouth' type info like someone saying 'I went there and here's my experience'.
It's a lot to look at something like a $100k expense for this. I could be pretty sure of good quality with a local provider for that $100k figure. But if I could find as good or better internationally for less than half and save $50,000 that's attractive.
Currently, I spent yesterday in some pain from the root/sinus area on the left with 4 teeth broken at the gumlines (I basically have the two front teeth left for biting upper/lower). Last night aleve/tylenol made the pain go away.
And even if I spend a lot to do this, there's how long they'll last. I hear 10 years, I head 30 years... I wouldn't want to have to re-purchase this in 10 or 15 years.
And then there's the question whether I should consider other options I've barely heard about in some cases - not only dentures, but things like bridges so multiple teeth use one implant.
Don't really know the tradeoffs there in cost/quality/how long it lasts/etc.
Clearly I've spent years putting off getting this done as more teeth have broken off. Just thought I'd share the experience of looking for the right option and listen to comments with suggestions.
One other option is looking for places in the US that are good and more affordable - I remember a 'dental school' in North Carolina that did a great job on something if I could find them again, if they do this work (probably not).
And then I see these 'low-cost implant' services advertising but don't feel comfortable with the quality yet from them unfortunately. And anyone who can be asked tends to have their own interests to protect.
