Dental Implants Cost
Do you have missing teeth? Implants will probably come up at some point in your options, but dental implants cost are prohibitive at best, and rarely covered by plans. The prices can range from $1,500 per implant up to $5,ooo on the upper cost scale. This is assuming that you have sufficient bone density and do not require surgery for bone grafting to even be able to receive dental charges.
Dental Implant Itself (Photo credit: M. Janicki)
Are you considering replacements for those teeth, but not sure where to start? Implants are the best recommended solution to your problem, and it may be worth your while to look into not only how much dental implants cost, but what benefits they can give you. Replacing missing teeth is never cheap, but the money isn’t the only thing that’s important. There are two other things that are important for you to consider: first, restoring the functionality of your mouth and jaw, and second, restoring the confidence of your smile.
Here we will discuss the benefits of this dental surgery, why they are the best option for you, and what the cost is worth to you.
Dental Implants – Functionality
Eating food when you have missing teeth is never a pleasure. Even just one missing tooth can make chewing and biting difficult, painful even. If a front tooth is missing, biting into hard foods can be a challenge that seems almost impossible; if you are missing a molar, chewy, tough foods may not even be an option for you.
It’s important to realize that the struggle you experience with biting and chewing because of your missing tooth is also doing damage to your jaw and mouth. If you have a tooth missing on one side of your mouth, you are bound to do most of the chewing and biting on the other side. This puts more stress than intended on that side of the mouth, and the teeth on that side will begin to wear out more quickly. It could even damage your teeth or jaw because you are forced to use the teeth differently. Dental implants eliminate this price to your oral health and give you the ability to enjoy the foods you love. No more chewing on just one side, and no more worrying about extra wear and tear on your precious teeth.
Another major issue that is caused by missing teeth is that your teeth will slowly begin to shift within your mouth. Even just one missing tooth can throw all the others out of alignment, creating ugly spaces and even making some crooked. Your occlusion will be affected and your bite may become uncomfortable, making eating and chewing even more difficult, causing food to more easily lodge itself between the teeth and leaving you a greater hassle in order to clean them. Dental implants cover this cost also, preventing the dental drift inside your mouth, preserving your bite.
Dental Implants – Esthetics
Our society today is all about smiles – you can’t go anywhere without seeing perfectly-aligned pearly whites plastered on posters, billboards, magazines, your TV, your computer. Everyone wants to have a beautiful smile because it’s the first thing people see! If you are missing teeth, it is sure to affect your self-image and the confidence with which you wear your smile. Particularly if you are missing a tooth toward the front of your mouth, you will find yourself trying to hide your smile, covering your mouth or even avoiding talking because of embarrassment or lack of confidence.
With dental implants, your full smile can be restored along with your confidence and self-esteem. Their cost covers not only your physical health, but your mental and emotional health; tailor made to fit your exact smile and colored to look completely natural, you will never feel the need to hide your smile again.
Types of Dental Implants
There are a number of kinds of dental implants to choose from, each of them varying budget wase: Mini-dental implants, denture implants, traditional implants. The most common type of dental implant is the traditional implant, which are larger in size, utilizing more titanium to give the tooth greater support. These work best for teeth like molars that are under more pressure than, say, your front teeth. However, their effectiveness is dependent upon there being sufficient jaw bone present, otherwise the thickness of the traditional implant would weaken the bone.
Mini dental implants are less than the traditional kind. Mini-dental implants, also known as MDIs, are much smaller, and are used for when less bone is present. They are used most often to replace missing front teeth because those teeth must withstand less pressure and are rooted in less bone. Because MDI’s use less titanium, these dental implants usually cost quite a bit less. However, these are not appropriate for replacing molars, as they would not be strong enough to withstand that amount of pressure.
The latest kind of implant to come out is the denture implant. Denture implants work as an alternative to the usual messy glue or attachment plates. With denture implants, your dentures will just snap in place when you want to put them on, and snap off when it’s time for them to soak. These dental implants are priced somewhere between the two others explained above, based upon how many implants you will need.
So you see, the price of an implant ranges from need to need, person to person. If you want more information specific to your situation, visit your local implants dentist.
What do Dental Implants Require to be Placed Well?
How many, the type, and your oral health will all factor into the answer to that question. It is also important to remember that if your jaw bone is not sufficiently thick and healthy, the implant procedure would fail unless you opt to get a bone graft. Adding a bone graft will greatly affect how much your dental implants end up costing you.
You should also factor your location into your overall budget. Not all dentists are trained in implant dentistry, and so you may need to travel a ways to find one you trust. Most likely more of these implant dentists will be found in larger cities because they are in higher demand there, which would likely boost their prices even higher.
A third thing to consider is the type of insurance you have. If you have health insurance or dental insurance and are considering dental implants, it would be worth it for you to check your plan and see if the implants cost will be covered. Because of the high cost, you may have to pay some out of your pocket. But even if you don’t have coverage, many implant dentists will offer you a payment plan.
Dental Implants run Approximately $1,500 up to $5,000 Per Implant
Don’t let missing teeth continue to threaten your oral and mental health; let dental implants cover the costs and give you back your self-image, confidence and beautiful smile. If you’re missing teeth and are considering dental implants, contact your local implants dentist today and get the facts and figures and find out if dental implants cost what your needs are worth.
More Information about cost factors
