Plan of action

[Paul514]

Hi,

I'm a 44yr old male. I've always brushed but seem to have bad teeth. I've got several cracked and one missing tooth. My two upper front teeth were broken when I fell off my bike when I was 15 so I have crowns there now which have been in for 15years. My teeth are hardly what they call white although sometimes they look better than others which is strange but they never look particularly good. I remember when the dentist showed me the crown before he put it in, it was, well, yellowish. He said 'it matches what you've got!' and he was right.

Never a particularly confident person I now feel my dental issues are affecting me. I really want to do something about it. The thing is, how do you go about it? The missing tooth is the most important, it's the fourth from the front on the upper jaw and very clearly visible when I smile and it looks awful. Now, it clearly needs a crown. However I need something done about the coloration of all my visible teeth whether that be veneers or another treatment. To me it seems there would be no point having a crown that matches my current color if I intend to do something about the others. What happens in these cases? do they just put a whiter crown on then do the rest?

We moved about six months ago, i haven't looked out a new dentist yet, I hate going because I feel embarrassed even though that's probably stupid because that person is a dentist and they've probably seen much worse than I present with.

In people's experience what happens when you need so much? Can you have it over a period of a few years as and when you can afford it or is it best to get a loan, get it all done as quickly as is reasonable for the work to bed down? Would love to hear other peoples experience to get some confidence that a way forward can be found. Any advice on seeking out the best dentists for long term cosmetic work would also be valuable.

Appreciate your advice.

P.S. I'm in Nashua, New Hampshire

 

[Bill A]

My teeth also needed a lot of work. It took over 3 1/2 years for all the work to be completed. It took so long partially because of financial reasons, and also because I had the work done at a dental school, which takes longer to complete the work but offers lower fees.
I initially also had an embarassment problem, going to the dentist, but I had a bridge break off which left me with a gap of FOUR missing front teeth, which was even more of an embarassment!
Also is it possible for you to get company paid dental insurance to help offset the costs? If not, you might look into purchasing an individual dental policy as it can under some circumstances help to lower your costs.

 

[Paul514]

Hi Bill,

Many thanks for taking the time to reply. We do have insurance through my wife's work, she's not been in the job long so the insurance has just kicked in. It does have dental but you're limited for the year and also don't think they would pay for too much cosmetic work. How much do you think you saved by going to a dental school? How did they work out a plan of action?

It's funny, it feels like being vain but it's not a case of wanting 'Hollywood' teeth I just want to feel normal. People make judgements and poor teeth indicate an individual who is neglectful of their dental health when that might not be the case.
Some of it is luck of the draw. My wife has great teeth, doesn't do anything different to me yet I'm the one who has a chip here from a pretzel and a crack there from a hard piece of toast!

Do you feel you are at journeys end with the work you had? Do you feel much better for it?

Many Thanks

Paul 514

 

[Bill A]

Concerning the option of utilizing the services of a dental school, they usually accept new patients in the fall. They will do a screening exam and then assign you to a dental student who will then draw up a treatment plan and provide you with an estimate of the total cost. Having dental students do the work can be substantially cheaper, BUT there is a caveat to be considered. Dental students can perform work like fillings, taking impressions for and installing crowns, and preparing teeth and making the impressions for dentures. But if you need more serious work, like root canals and crown lengthenings as I did, that work needs to be done by graduate dental residents at the school at a higher price. So if you do investigate having a dental school do the work, be sure you get an estimate for any additional work (root canals & crown lengthenings) that would need to be performed by other dentists than the dental student who was assigned to prepare and execute your treatment plan.
There is also the time factor to be considered is having work done by an educational institution. Each visit will probably last three hours! The dental student doesn't work on your teeth constantly for the entire time period. The student will perform a step in the treatment and then wait for a faculty member to become available to check that the work that they did was done correctly. The they will proceed to the next step. A very time consuming process.
But all in all I'm certainly glad that I got the work done. I talk better, I look better, and I eat more easily now that all the work has been completed than I did in the fall of 2011, before I started getting the dental work done.