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Dentists are pulling ‘healthy’ and treatable teeth to profit from implants, experts warn
(www.newsfromthestates.com)
this post was submitted on 18 Nov 2024
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Honestly, unless this tooth repair gel thing works and becomes available soon, I'd rather have some of my teeth replaced with implants.
I've asked my dentist "can we just skip the endless filling replacements, caps, crowns, and eventual implants and just go right to implants?"
They always say no, and I ask is there a reason why "natural teeth" with fillings/caps/crowns are better than implants - they reply with "But it's your teeth! They'll last a long time before needing implants!"
Yeah, so I'll need implants eventually, can't I just get them now before I put more fillings, caps, crowns, and eventual implants? Ain't nobody got time for that.
"but your natural teeth will last a long time!"
Yeah, but they ain't so natural after 5 procedures, and I'd rather avoid the ha$$le and just get the implants now instead of implants and a lifetime of repairs.
They always say no, and it's probably because they make way more money fixing bad teeth than replacing it with something permanent
EDIT
Thank you everyone!
I've gotten better answers here than from my dentist, so thank you everyone for educating me on the reasons why.
IDK how these implants work or if she had them but my mom had a bunch of teeth taken out and her jaw started dissolving because there were no teeth there and it was expensive for her to get it straightened out.
Implants aren't nearly as good as real teeth from a sensation perspective. If you can keep as much of the real ones as you can, do.
Idk my father got a set of titanium chompers, he eats ice as a snack now.
Implants go bad too. What do you do after an implant goes bad? I bet your options would be very limited then.
I was under the impression swapping out an implant was far easier than installing the system.
And I'm also talking about teeth that have been repeatedly drilled, capped, crowns etc - not a normal, healthy tooth.
These teeth are basically anchors for crowns, at what point is a new implant better than a chiseled out tooth?
I have about 9 crowns currently, and my wife is a dental assistant with implant and surgery experience. I asked about this one time and got this explanation.
Implants are a highly invasive, long, and expensive process, like over 10k each expensive, and months of procedures and recovery. Granted, usually implants aren't done to healthy teeth, but they usually have to build up the bone material after extracting the tooth and let that heal, drill into the bone and set the post then let that heal, then fit the implant and adjust everything because your teeth have been moving while it's been healing.
One of the reasons the dentist doesn't want to just pull a tooth and do an implant is the even when root canaled, that tooth is a better support than the implant post would be, and the implant is a lot more work.
The process of fillings, then crown, then root canal and crown don't usually happen in sequence like that, and if you do preventative maintenance you can keep a tooth with a filling from ever needing to be crowned or root canal'd
You wanna know what's a hell of a lot cheaper and easier than getting any dental work? Flossing and brushing!
I have hated flossing my entire life because it hurts my fingers to wrap the floss enough not to slide, but a couple months back I discovered I could tie a figure 8 knot and make a loop to pull tension on and now find i can't stand the feeling of anything in-between my teeth so I end up flossing after every meal.
Moral of the story is: floss and brush your teeth and you won't need to worry about crowns or implants. Always before bed and especially after anything with sugar or starches
I got a little floss holder, it has drastically changed my willingness to floss. (I think it's "E-Z Floss".) I wish any dentist had ever recommended that.
But thanks for the info about implants, I didn't know that process at all. My grandfather used to say he wished he'd just gotten dentures.
While flossing and brushing are definitely best practice, they absolutely do not guarantee never getting cavities.
Implants can fail at the implant/bone interface. You have limited amounts of bone in the jaw.
I'm not a dentist or surgeon, but I have an education in biomedical engineering. With knee and hip implants, for example, a major consideration is the health and longevity of the underlying bone.