Dr. Hall,
I think I am a candidate for dental implants. Is there dental insurance that will help with the cost?
- Gary from Pennsylvania
Gary,
Dental insurance, if you already have it, will usually help pay for dental implants, but not very much. What most dental insurance plans will do is pay for the least expensive option for replacing missing teeth, which usually ends up being something removable – either a removable full denture or a removable partial denture. These are the most uncomfortable dental restorations.
Another point I’d like to make is that it appears that you’re looking to buy some insurance on your own to help pay for implants. If that is the case, think through what you want. It sounds like you’re thinking of trying to take advantage of the insurance company. You want to pay them a certain amount of money and then get them to pay you more money back in benefits than you paid them in premiums. Good luck trying to talk a for-profit dental insurance company into that business deal.
- Dr. Hall
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I was told I had gum disease and I have no insurance to go back and get this checked. I’m waiting to get some and I noticed my gum in front on the bottom is so low under my 2 bottom front teeth. They have become slightly loose and I know I’m gonna lose them. Please help! If they both come out will my other teeth move forward to fill that gap in? What do I do to save my teeth without having to lose them or get a partial?
- Nicole from Tennessee
Nicole,
Gum disease is serious and once teeth become loose from gum disease, there usually isn’t anything you can do to save them. And if some teeth are already loose, others probably aren’t far behind.
My advice if you have gum disease is to take matters into your own hands and not depend on dental insurance. Preventing gum disease isn’t that expensive—you just need to be faithful with checkups and cleanings, and then do your basic home care.
You would have been much better off had you kept up with your regular dental care. My advice to you now is to go to the dentist and try to slow down or stop the gum disease. The sooner the better.
- Dr. Hall
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I had crowns put on my upper 8 front teeth and lower 6 front teeth. I had tetracycline stains. He kept trying to re-do the crowns, but they never looked right.
The first set of crowns looked really bad—thick yellow and badly contoured. The second set looked much better. The bottoms were still somewhat yellow but we were going to put them on and try to use a liner on the bottom to block out the yellow. He tried different colored liners and they made the crowns look blue or gray. So he made another more opaque set of crowns. They look like the porcelein a sink is made out of. I let him put them on because I figured if he tried again I don’t know if they would look better or worse but the front upper 4 look particularly bad. The lab tried to make them look more “natural” and blended some translucent color and it looks like gray streaks and spots. I didn’t notice to what extent until I got home and looked at them more closely.
- Kim from California
Kim,
I don’t know what to tell you, except that I hope other people learn from what happened to you. Tetracycline stains are very difficult to treat, and most dentists don’t have a clue about how to go about it. It appears that your dentist had never done tetracycline stains before. Very few have. And the whole thing just bombed.
You don’t need crowns for tetracycline stains – only porcelain veneers. Crowns require grinding the whole tooth down. Porcelain veneers just need the front of the tooth shaved a little. And it’s tricky to block out the intense dark color of the stain and still get the tooth to look natural. Dentists either don’t block it out enough, and the teeth look gray, or they block it out too much and they look like a toilet bowl. And it sounds like your dentist’s laboratory was also taking it’s first attempt at dealing with tetracycline stains.
You may be able to get your money back. You can try. My advice is not to be confrontational. First thing I would do, however, is find a qualified cosmetic dentist from our list of excellent cosmetic dentists in the Los Angeles area, and see what they think. Then I would go for getting all your money back and starting over. You can have a beautiful smile, but you need a genuine cosmetic dentist to do it.
- Dr. Hall
Related links:
Read our new page about tooth color.
Click here for referral to an expert cosmetic dentist.
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Hello, Dr Hall
My husband has been at a dentist who learned at Dr Malo’s cliic, the doctor said he should have the all in 4 method, but the price was far far higher that we can afford.
The question is how much approximately the whole mouth would cost with the 4 implants and the whole treatment? We have been thinking that maybe it would be worth it to travel to portugal? Hope you will answer my question promptly since this situation, without teeth, is impossible to bear for him.
Thank you in advance,
Dinah from Jerusalem, Israel
Dear Dinah,
I would be careful. I don’t know much about dental care in Israel, so I don’t know what your options are. The All-on-Four technique is a controversial dental implants technique, and I’m suspicious of a dentist who only gives you this option.
If cost is a big factor, a snap-on denture or an overdenture is the most economical. They can require as few as two dental implants, and the cost is usually proportional to the number of implants. They aren’t as stable as using more implants, but the risk of failure may be lower than the all-on-four technique, which has had a higher risk of failure for most dentists.
Do you have many choices of implant dentists in Jerusalem? I’d tend to recommend getting a second opinion here.
- Dr. Hall
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Dr. Hall,
Thank you so much for your website. It has helped answer many questions that I have; specifically, regarding dental implants.
I am in need of three implants and possibly bone grafting. I would like to know more about how dentists determine if one is a good candidate for the grafting.
My general dentist wants to do implants but I would like someone who is more experienced in helping me make the right decision. I am 42 and had a bridge done when I was 16, and I can see the bone loss.
- Esther from Texas
Esther,
Your chances for success with bone grafting are best if you are in good general health. Beyond that, it is a matter of examining your x-rays and CT scans, and making a decision based on the specifics of your case.
If you have a more complicated case, which is the situation if you need bone grafting, it is good to get a dentist with strong experience in dental implants. This is a field that is like cosmetic dentistry. It isn’t a separate specialty, but it requires extensive additional training beyond dental school.
As far as finding an implant dentist, there isn’t a really good way that I know about. It’s going to involve a little guesswork, but that’s the best I think you can do. What I would do is look for a dentist who has a website, and then look for someone with strong credentials. Do a search for implant dentists in your city. Then look for evidence in the doctor’s biography of extra training in implant dentistry and professional memberships. There are organizations such as the International Congress of Oral Implantology, the Academy of Osseointegration, and the American Academy of Implant Dentistry that provide extra training in implant dentistry for dentists. You need someone with strong experience and training in this field.
I hope this is helpful,
Dr. Hall
Links:
Cosmetic dentistry
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Hello Dr. Hall! How do I make sure my dentist is a trusted and/or certified “Lumineer expert” I can trust? $10,000 is a lot of money to spend and be unhappy with the result…
Thank you,
Roni from San Diego
Roni,
First, on how NOT to make sure your dentist is a Lumineers expert – don’t use the Lumineers website. Dentists get listed as certified for Lumineers by paying money to the company. That’s all there is to it. It’s all a branding and marketing thing.
Here’s what the Lumineers advertisements don’t tell you – the big secret. There is nothing really unique about Lumineers. It’s just a brand of porcelain veneers. Even though their company has a training program and “certifies” dentists, all they have to do is pay them money and attend their course. There is no test, and many of the dentists who get certified do lousy work. If you find an expert and artistic cosmetic dentist, they can do Lumineers or any other brand of porcelain veneers. And there are other brands of porcelain that are as thin as Lumineers and look more beautiful.
As far as how to find an artistic and expert cosmetic dentist, that is the whole purpose of this website – why it exists. Because cosmetic dentistry isn’t a legally distinct specialty, any dentist can claim to be a cosmetic dentist without any special training. The few who take the trouble to really learn the field well, those are the ones I seek out to list on their site. We don’t list every expert cosmetic dentist, but all the ones we list are truly expert, because of our screening process. So check out our Southern California cosmetic dentists and pick one, and you can’t go wrong.
- Dr. Hall
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