I have a couple of lower front teeth on the bottom that are failing me so my dentist called me 15 minutes ago and informed me he wants to remove the 4 bottom incisors and either replace them with a bridge or implants. Procedure is pretty simple and he claims he will have them out in 10 minutes or less. Gonna do the flap thing and lift them out. Anyone ever had this kind of thing done? He suggested sedation but my son lives in KY and all I have are 2 80 year old parents who would have trouble with a 6'8" 240 pound giant drunk. Implants are expensive so I am going to do the bridge. My sister is a dental hygienist and she warns against the partial even though it is much less expensive.
I've had a partial for 50 years, got implants five years ago. In my case, the difference is based on which teeth are involved.
Removing the teeth is no problem. Prepping and building the bridge is no problem. I had mine replaced two weeks ago for the second time since I first got a partial in 1965. Took less than a week all together, of which maybe 30 minutes involved me directly. Cost about $2K.
Implants are another matter. Mine took about 3 months, involved 4 bone grafts. They are great, but it wasn't cheap ($20K) and it certainly isn't a simple process. Two things complicated it in my case.
First, like my Dad, the right side of my jaw is practically immune to local anesthetic. The doc pumped about a quart in there before things were relative dead. He's apologizing and pumping in more juice, and the assistant is apologizing and wiping away the tears. Fond memories.
The second thing is that after the grafts, things got infected, so he had to go in and scrape everything out -- which is when the resistance to pain killer REALLY became a factor. And no, it wasn't a cut-rate butcher; the guy who did the work is the head of oral surgery at UIHC. He knew I was a Cyclone fan, but I don't think that was a factor.
Once they were in, the implants are terrific. Never have to think about them at all. Dentist has removed them twice to check out things and do some cleaning, but I don't do anything but brush and chew.
