My wife has some upcoming dental work and we're trying to figure out what to do. We are retired and have no dental insurance. Seemed to us it did not offer much coverage with annual maximums vs annual costs. We are fortunate we can afford to pay for this out of pocket, but working to find best cost benefit option.
She has a bridge in front on her top row of teeth that goes over to and includes #11. My wife spends a lot of time caring for her teeth, flossing, brushing , water pick etc...She has a problem with #14. It has a crown and is showing decay at the gum and we are being told to remove it and do a bone graft, have a post installed with a fake tooth and crown. Total between oral surgeon and dentist is looking to be @ $6400. After getting better pictures of the area we are told #13 has an inflamed root and we need to do a root canal on this tooth in between the extraction and abutment work. Guessing another $1600. #12 seems to be OK. They showed a number of her teeth with inflammation at the root.
She had a permanent bridge from when she was 26 that failed some years ago and we had a new bridge made that she puts in and takes out. No one has presented us with options to just remove #14 and see how it feels or remove 12, 13 & 14 and do a new bridge that includes these into the area covered with her current bridge. She does well with the bridge she has, it is not uncomfortable.
I don't want to make a money decision for her, it's not my mouth, but we can see a lot of dollars going into her mouth of the upcoming years and $8,000-$10,000 a year is not practical for us.
Seems to me dentistry wants to do perfect dentistry and not take into consideration that people have budgets.
Thanks for any input.
Brian
She has a bridge in front on her top row of teeth that goes over to and includes #11. My wife spends a lot of time caring for her teeth, flossing, brushing , water pick etc...She has a problem with #14. It has a crown and is showing decay at the gum and we are being told to remove it and do a bone graft, have a post installed with a fake tooth and crown. Total between oral surgeon and dentist is looking to be @ $6400. After getting better pictures of the area we are told #13 has an inflamed root and we need to do a root canal on this tooth in between the extraction and abutment work. Guessing another $1600. #12 seems to be OK. They showed a number of her teeth with inflammation at the root.
She had a permanent bridge from when she was 26 that failed some years ago and we had a new bridge made that she puts in and takes out. No one has presented us with options to just remove #14 and see how it feels or remove 12, 13 & 14 and do a new bridge that includes these into the area covered with her current bridge. She does well with the bridge she has, it is not uncomfortable.
I don't want to make a money decision for her, it's not my mouth, but we can see a lot of dollars going into her mouth of the upcoming years and $8,000-$10,000 a year is not practical for us.
Seems to me dentistry wants to do perfect dentistry and not take into consideration that people have budgets.
Thanks for any input.
Brian