Has anyone had dental implants (is that right?) and are they a good alternative to crowns?

[hunkermunker]

Or am I talking rubbish?

I need my front teeth changed - they're crowns and they're vile. What's the best option? Assume money is no object for the purpose of this discussion (although it is - but I want to know what the options are - this is my front teeth we're talking about and they've not looked nice since I was about nine and they got smashed out ).

Fancy seeing you here! We can be partners in smashed-off-teeth and lament the passing of our youthful enamel till somebody with dental knowledge helps us out

i've got one capped front tooth... so am lurking on a half-price basis.

why are you lurking, you've already taken the NHS for every penny you can screw out of it...

Hi
have a veneer cap on my front tooth. It's really well done, looks very natural, Cost 700

My mum had implants done. All I can say is that she suffered a lot.
At best it's just bone trauma and healing pain. At worst you can get an infection and that's weeks of agony and the risk of having to remove implants and start over.

Crowns don't last forever you know .

mine bloomin' does...

Awww, Slim...that's me decided, I think! BONE infection! In my face?! I'm only just over the shock of discovering that the enormous amount of drilling I had when I was a teenager and had toothache in my capped tooth was actually root canal work and I have a filling that goes up to about my eye socket!

Mine can't be veneers, I don't think - I have crowns already and no teeth left.

why don't you just get crowns replaced?
Had mine done after about 14 years. They clean up and make new crown. They are always going to try and sell you a new type of procedure. There is no reason to go for implants if there is an alternative like replacement.
My only advice is get a good Dr. It's money well spent and save you loads in the long run as it will last longer.

If you are in north London, can recommend my dentist, she's fab but pricey.

My DH lost his bottom 4 front teeth playing rugby as a teenager. They were put back in for a while but about 12 years ago he had a bridge put in which is attached to the teeth either side of the gap. It is getting a bit wobbly now apparently but it needs a clean up and reglued. He actually had it done at St Thomas Dental School in London for free as it was a fairly experimental approach. The downside is that he has never felt 100% confident of its strength and hasn't eaten apples for years and bites stuff like french bread slightly to the side rather than put full force on his bridge. However, 4 teeth is a big gap to bridge so I don't know if a 2 tooth gap would be stronger.

My dentist said it wasn't easy to replace crowns (I had a new one done a year ago) but he expected it to last for at least 25 years so hopefully I won't ever have to find out if that is true. He said getting them off can quite often snap off the tooth and then of course a new crown is impossible.

I also have a friend who has on her third attempt to have implants done although she has a cleft pallate (sp?) and has had to have a bone graft too. Although she is an extreme case, I think it can happen that implants don't necessarily 'take' and it is quite major work. But on the other hand if it works it is very natural and pretty strong as I understand it.

Since I have a horror of the dentist perhaps I shouldn't have replied to this thread but I think, if somebody could guarantee to get my crowns off in one piece, I would have new one fitted. They are probably much better now than they were a few years back.

I am going to have new crowns (see thread in AIBU), but I wanted to make sure I'd explored every avenue and I was worried about the margins receding at the gumline again. I thought implants might solve that problem, but not at the expense of having a bone infection. That sounds grim and a half!

I don't think I've got much tooth left to snap off, Niecie. From what I remember when the crowns were put on originally, I felt like a gummy, gappy 6yo when the temporary crowns were taken off for the permanent (ha!) ones to be put on.

Poor your DH btw - four teeth!

He was banned from playing rugby after that on the grounds he only has one kidney and if he can do that to his teeth, what kind of damange can he do to his one remaining kidney?!!

He's just a bit of an old crock really.

I have to say that it is one of those things I dread, breaking my front teeth. Makes me shudder. I don't thinking of falling over and breaking an arm, leg or head, only my teeth.

Hope you get yourself sorted soon.

Implants are great, when there is no alternative left. It would involve removing the remainder of the teeth & wearing a denture for a short while.

When the extraction sites have healed, then you can embark on implants. They are expensive, but done correctly they can be wonderful. You will need to have the gum cut & bone drilled into. Yes, infection is a possibility, but rare as long as it is done in the correct environment & good oral hygiene routine followed.

They will not stop the recession. You can still get margins showing, as they are essentailly crowns on metal posts. Nothing will stop recession, only correct brushing.

You can't have veneers after crowns, as veneers adhere to the surface of the tooth. You can have what is called a veneer-crown, but it is really just a crown! Anything that covers more than the front surface of the tooth is essentially a crown.

New crowns are the best way to go. There will be minimal prep to do, as most of it is done if you previously have crowns. Ask if it is possible to have crowns without a metal base. That would mean you wouldn't see a metal margin if you had further recession.

my dh has an implant in his front tooth. He chipped it as a child then it eventually died and he just put up with it. 2 years ago in December he had the tooth out, then about 6 months after that a post put in then in the August had the 'tooth' put on. It took loads of visits to the dentist but looks brilliant, I doubt whether anyone could pick it out as not his. He said, it felt odd as there was no sensation in the tooth when biting and things but now AFAIK he's got used to it.

Implants are made up of several sections - the bit that goes into the bone, the post, and then the crown. If you already have sound roots, then you shouldn't need to have the implant fitted and the dentist should be able to either fix a new crown onto a stub of your naturual tooth, or fix a post into root, and then a crown on top of that.

Whatever method, they'd still neet to fit new porcelein crowns and the issue with gum recession would remain. It sounds like, at minimum, you need new crowns to take account of your new gumline.

A cosmetic dental specialist can work wonders.