Dental implants - your experiences

[EmeraldRoulette]

Hello all

Please could you tell me your experience of having dental implants?

I have cracked more than one tooth and damaged them from grinding my teeth. I'm looking at a very large bill (and probably about six appointments ) and I wondered if implants would be a more sensible use of that money. I'd obviously have to find a way to stop grinding my teeth as well because imagine if I broke implants!!

My impression is, it's a lot of hassle, pain and unpleasantness

As far as I can see I'm looking at

Preliminary scans and x-rays

Then, if all goes well with those, I'd need a couple of extractions and whatever they do to cover up temporarily

Then have the steel post put in with the temporary tooth

Then more scans and checks to make sure the steel has bonded with the bone or whatever the word is

Then ultimately the final tooth

And that's if I don't need a bone graft or a sinus lift

It sounds deeply invasive and unpleasant

Yet I meet people who say it was easy.

I'm not sure if some of these people have forgotten how much hassle it was maybe?
My mum has a couple of elderly friends who has it done and frankly they will have seen all the appointments as being a bit of a day out!

so I'm keen to hear all your experiences. Thank you. If you had a burning urge to talk about your dental implants, here's your chance 😂

it might go without saying, but I absolutely hate going to the dentist and the idea of having dental surgery horrifies me. However, the idea of handing over thousands to a dentist for what might be a temporary fix also horrifies me!

Yes, it’s been fitted backwards or something, there should be a screw in the back to secure it. Mine is simply held in with cement because if they put a screw in, it would have to be in the front and would be very visible.
I had an implant because I wanted the security of it not being able to fall out after my bridge fell out, leaving me toothless for a couple of weeks. With it just being cemented in, I’m constantly terrified it’s going to fall out, I’m constant checking and rechecking every time I eat, when I wake up, when I look in the mirror etc.
They then claimed they had to fit it like that because I refused a bone graft. I absolutely would have had a bone graft for the security of the screw and for it to have looked as good as possible. It’s right at the front of my face fgs! They’re the ones who made the decision not to recommend the bone graft, I wasn’t aware it was needed, they’re the experts, supposedly!

@DentalDisaster I realise you don't want to out yourself

I am curious to know what part of the country this work was done in. So anyone looking for an implant can avoid this place hopefully.

that's really shocking and I'm very sorry it happened to you.

I'm in my mid 40s and had a lot of dental work done just after I turned 40 including 2 implants. I had a bone graft/sinus lift

It was about a year start to finish, cost £12k and included a lot of appointments, some of which were three hours long.

I wouldn't call any of it easy, and it did hurt at times BUT I would definitely do it again and would recommend.

PM me with any questions if you like, there's loads I could bore you with!!

@The2ndMrsMaximDeWinter thank you so much

I have sent a PM - hopefully they are working now!

@ScabbyHorse nine or 10 months? Can I ask why it took so long, please?
It really is good to have all the information. Maybe I should just stick with the bridges and crowns options.

Yes, it took that long because the dentist wanted to do it gradually for some reason but I would’ve preferred it was done faster tbh. They did a good job but it went on a bit.