Dental Health

[FrancisK]

I am not a dentist but I am a future implant patient who has done a lot of research on the subject.

There are...

True. Your teeth on both sides of the empty socket have already begun shifting. You risk a "domino effect" of losing more teeth by not filling the empty space of the lost tooth. Your moving teeth will shift your bite thus putting your remaining teeth into unnatural positions of "stressful" contact with each other causing them to crack.

I'm getting 4 implants but first have to get braces to realign my bite because I waited too long.

I don't believe this to be true but will let a dentist (if we have one here) correct me if I'm wrong. Implants can be tricky sometimes requiring bone grafts and sinus lifts. Implants are major oral surgery and the better your surgeon the better your outcome. Like with anything else, you get what you pay for.

If you can't afford the best private care then I suggest a highly ranked dental school. At a world class dental school you can pay extra to have the professors (who are all professional dentists with years of experience) do your work and the students will assist. The great thing about a dental school is you have a team working on your dental issue(s)where there are lots of eyeballs on "the work" which ensures good, unrushed work with less errors. In addition, a dental school basically insures their work and should complications arise they are more likely to fix the problem without pushback and/or charging you more money.

Well for whatever it's worth I have multiple older relatives who have gone to Iraq for a full set of implants at probably 10% of the cost they would be here in the USA, it used to be Turkey but since Iraq has started to come around and them originally being from Iraq they went there. They look great and there weren't any issues, Iraq isn't really known for their medical prowess since they were bombed back into the Middle Ages a few races ago but also your barber used to be your dentist....

Not to minimize any medical procedure but things like this which for all intents and purposes are "cosmetic" experience means more than any shiny degree on the wall.

 

[PurpleUrkel]

... but things like this which for all intents and purposes are "cosmetic"...

The cosmetic improvement is secondary to the issue of stabalizing your teeth (and bite) to prevent further tooth loss. When you lose a tooth it is important to fill the void of the lost tooth to keep your remaining teeth from shifting. In addition, having a full set of well-aligned teeth makes it much more comfortable (and hence enjoyable) to eat and chew food.

I have multiple older relatives who have gone to Iraq for a full set of implants at probably 10% of the cost they would be here in the USA.

I would not advise white American men to go to Iraq for implants, though I'm glad to hear things worked out for your relatives who are originally from there.

In addition, not all implant procedures are the same. Some are more complicated than others (due to age, overall physical/oral health, closeness of socket to sinus, jaw bone density at site, etc.). For example, one of my implants requires a bone graph and the complete procedure from beginning to end will take 6 months. I can't just fly into Iraq and get the implant in a day for that tooth. It's a bit more complicated than that.

 

[FrancisK]

The cosmetic improvement is secondary to the issue of stabalizing your teeth (and bite) to prevent further tooth loss. When you lose a tooth it is important to fill the void of the lost tooth to keep your remaining teeth from shifting. In addition, having a full set of well-aligned teeth makes it much more comfortable (and hence enjoyable) to eat and chew food.

I would not advise white American men to go to Iraq for implants, though I'm glad to hear things worked out for your relatives who are originally from there.

In addition, not all implant procedures are the same. Some are more complicated than others (due to age, overall physical/oral health, closeness of socket to sinus, jaw bone density at site, etc.). For example, one of my implants requires a bone graph and the complete procedure from beginning to end will take 6 months. I can't just fly into Iraq and get the implant in a day for that tooth. It's a bit more complicated than that.

I'm not saying for anyone to go to Iraq, I mentioned it as an example speaking in general to dentistry in other countries. I've never had any work done in other countries and I'm certainly not a dentist, I simply know of many people who have specifically gotten implants in other countries successfully for a fraction of the price.....iraq, turkey and even Mexico.

 

[RedLagoon]

Singapore has the best dental practitioners in the world but it won't be cheap.

Look I'm not saying there are "bad" dentists around but there certainly are good butchers.

You get what you pay for in the end, the mouth is the closest to the brain.

 

[GoodShepherd]

You wouldnt be able to, you still have to be trained on the machine and they wont do it if youre not a "doctor" it's not something you can do yourself at home. I don't know if you're in the USA but if you are I could potentially pull some strings for you if you're willing to travel to Michigan and I do proceed with investing in this business which it's looking like I might do, always happy to help any brother here with anything I possibly could.

That being said, go to a foreign country and get them done for next to nothing. There is nothing about dentistry where you need to be concerned about doing it outside the USA it's totally based on experience, the best doctor is just as good as the worst doctor because it's all just procedural.

Im not in US, didnt want to do it myself thought I could get this whatever it is and get a dentist to do it for me

 

[GoodShepherd]

I had a bad tooth that I let go for months last year, and finally got it yanked. They want a lot of money for a bridge, and even more for an implant, and it's way in the back, so I'm fine with leaving it out for now. I ended up having some cavities and bad fillings fixed too.

I realized in hindsight my tooth decay had been giving me bad breath, and was glad to have it fixed. After that experience, I started to notice when other people have untreated dental problems, just from their breath. There is a particular smell to tooth decay. I went out to lunch with a group from church recently, and two of the men had the problem noticeably.

I assume most people in this situation don't realize it. I'd recommend getting any deferred maintenance on teeth taken care of, at least as far as extractions and cavity repair.

At present my teeth are ok but before I took the other two out I let them each stay in there for months, the one about a year and I had pain but some days it was fine, other days terrible had to drink whiskey on the bad days, eventually go so bad I went to get it removed.

Yes sometimes bad teeth give bad breathe you dont want that.

 

[FrancisK]

Im not in US, didnt want to do it myself thought I could get this whatever it is and get a dentist to do it for me

If I end up taking on the business venture I'll get you the implants at cost price, I'll have a warehouse full of them it's just a matter of determining what is required which I'm sure I'll learn once things get rolling and if you can even utilize them locally to you. I'll let you know either way brother in the near future.

 

[RedLagoon]

From personal experience, have someone work on your mouth who's training is verifiable.

There's not much that scares me, but a dentist does so it's totally understandable to seek the right dentist. I can't say who or where to go but generally if you feel comfortable you should be ok.

Don't wait too long either, it might be a nothing burger until it's not. Implants? I'd go for them to just keep my .

 

[Tippy]

The other question is which material to use for implants.

I heard 'zirconia' is more durable but also has risks.

 

[Let God Arise]

Focus on the text, please.

[delete]

 

[Joost]

- Brush your teeth after eating. An electric toothbrush from Walmart cost $10. It works. Change the brush every month or two.
- Go to a dentist once a year for cleaning. If you developed a cavity, it will never be big enough that will require root canal. I like to do it overseas during vacation since it can be cheap.
- whitening can make you look younger and healthier. Those strips that sells at Walmart cost $20 and do the job. Use Sensodyne for 2-3 weeks to deal with sensitivity.

As for crooked teeth, there are companies that you can send your mold and they will ship you the aligners. You could get those for less than $1k. Today it costs $2.5k-3k in the States.
For implants, I don't know much. A good dentist will do what's possible for you to keep your original teeth.

 

[john_Jea]

Assuming the missing tooth is in the back, where it's not visible, there is only one potential issue: shifting, which can affect the chewing mechanism. Your teeth are always moving and if there is a large gap, the other teeth with shift to fill that space, potentially misaligning some of them. Teeth don't just stay fixed permanently in one spot, but rely on the horizontal AND vertical position to stay in their correct place. In the same way, if say a pre-molar or molar is missing, the tooth directly above it will continue to grow downwards and become abnormally long, as well as the teeth adjacent shifting to fill the gap.

Does the same apply to wisdom teeth? I've heard that your wisdom teeth are like anchors for your face and if you remove them your face can "sink in".
I have a couple months left of my insurance that will pay for removing them, and on top of that I just found a cavity in my upper left one and another one starting on the right. Both my upper wisdom teeth are crooked outward so I'm thinking about just having them removed rather than fixed, but if there is a risk of messing with my face I'm not sure.

Anyone have anecdotal evidence of this?

 

[Joost]

Does the same apply to wisdom teeth? I've heard that your wisdom teeth are like anchors for your face and if you remove them your face can "sink in".
I have a couple months left of my insurance that will pay for removing them, and on top of that I just found a cavity in my upper left one and another one starting on the right. Both my upper wisdom teeth are crooked outward so I'm thinking about just having them removed rather than fixed, but if there is a risk of messing with my face I'm not sure.

Anyone have anecdotal evidence of this?

I removed mine and I didn't notice any difference. It was painless and fast recovery (3 days IIRC). A friend of mine removed 4 teeth and her face was swollen like a bulldog. So choose a good dentist.