So what happened?
Well, it wasn't as bad as I feared, but it is certainly more wide-ranging and aggressive than I'd thought of. Given my dental history, it's a good solution.
In a nutshell, he wants to remove the currently good teeth on either end of my upper jaw. When I say 'good', thats a careful word; they've been rebuilt, patched, and capped; his estimate is that I will have serious problems with one or both sides within three years -- and when I do, any reconstructive work in the middle would be imperiled. His solution: an implant hybrid, where they put the implant sockets into my jaw, but fit into it a removable 'dental appliance' -- I'd call it a denture. It would not ordinarily be removed, but it could be, for cleaning on occasion.
He did surprise and trouble me a couple of times -- the last time I was in his examining chair, he spoke disparagingly of the thickness of my bone in front, top; now he said that actually it was thicker than he remembered, and dense, too (well, certainly my head is!) ; last time, he spoke glowingly of how good implants would be, once the bone graft was done; now he said that bone grafts can lead to flat surfaces that don't merge believably with the implant's root -- structurally fine, aesthetically not. Where did this come from, I wondered?
But overall, I think its a good plan. Less expensive, too. Not cheap, but not as expensive -- and covered by insurance.
4 comments:
"covered by insurance"
Those three beautiful words we all long to hear...
If you recall, I had an implant put in. It was a long and very lengthy procedure, and my insurance did NOT cover it. However, if there is a way to keep your teeth, you should. Even the best denture is a bitch. It was not a magic repair!
For something this big you should get a second opinion. A second visit will cost a bit, but you would have peace of mind.
Oh, and it was about 2 years before you could no longer feel the lump in my jaw from the bone graft. I had the cadaver bone graft, and my body didn't like it...tried to push it out. After a year or so, it gave up, and simply assimilated it instead. Which was supposed to happen. But the post ended up in a slightly different angle, and the ceramic tooth had to be built to suit.
The downside is that I have to use an ultrasonic toothbrush around that tooth twice a day. The upside is that now I am using the ultrasonic toothbrush, I have not had cavities or any other dental work in two years. Damn! Wish I had bought one of these things long ago!
My implant is in the lower jaw and is really close to the nerve. If I don't brush with the ultrasonic every day, I get a hell of an earache.
Thats a heck of an inducement to keep doing it.
I wish that I didn't have to do this, but given my dental history, not to mention genetic predisposition which is part of the reason for the dental history, I think this is a good approach. I have always assumed that I would end up wearing dentures, like my mother and grandmother (both of whom have the same genetic predisposition). Having dentures that don't have to come out, and won't shift around, sounds decent to me.
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