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Single Tooth Replacement
Walnut Creek
Options for Replacing a Single Missing Tooth
at Dental Implant Center at Walnut Creek
Even the loss of a single tooth, be it from tooth decay or an accident, can put a damper on your everyday life. Not only can it affect your ability to eat, but it can also affect your self confidence. Fortunately, with a trip to Dental Implant Center at Walnut Creek, you can receive a replacement tooth.
There are two ways in which this can be done. One is by way of a bridge. The other is a Dental Implant.
What is A Bridge?
A bridge is a replacement tooth that is connected to the healthy surrounding teeth by cementing it to them. In order for the bridge to fit properly in the space where your tooth used to be, the surrounding teeth must be prepared so that it can fit over and be cemented to them. Thus, the bridge covers the hole where your actual tooth used to be. So instead of a single replacement tooth, you are actually receiving three that are connected together. The bridge is meant to be a permanent replacement, but there is a chance that the cement can come loose and the bridge could fall out.
What About a Dental Implant?
For an actual permanent replacement, you may want to consider a dental implant. This implant is a titanium rod, which is meant to act as a “root,” that is set in and fused to your bone. In order for this fusion to work, the bone must be in good condition. When you lose a tooth, the bone surrounding the area where the tooth used to be can deteriorate. It has been shown that a dental implant can actually slow, and even stop, this degradation. An abutment is placed on the implant, and it is upon this that the new tooth is screwed or cemented. A dental implant allows you to save your perfectly healthy surrounding teeth, as they do not need to be touched at all. You only need to have a single replacement tooth placed in the space where your old tooth used to reside.
The Dental Implant Process
There are several steps in having your dental implant placed. During your initial consultation, Dr. Keith or Dr. Gibbs will give you a complete examination, which may include x-rays. These images will allow your prosthodontist to see not only the space where your tooth used to be but also the bone below it. When you go in for surgery, if there is any tooth remaining in the space, it will be removed. Then the area is prepared and the titanium implant is placed. You will receive a temporary replacement while you heal. During this healing process, you will visit with your prosthodontist frequently to make certain that you are healing properly. After you have healed, you will then receive your permanent replacement.
What Goes Into the Cost of a Single Dental Implant
An implant is three separate components
An implant isn’t one object. It’s three, placed at three different stages. The implant body is the post that goes into the jaw and fuses with the bone. The abutment is the custom-made connector that sits over it. The crown is the visible tooth that attaches to the abutment. Each is manufactured separately, placed at a separate appointment, and billed as its own item.
Those three account for most of a single-tooth total. When an advertised implant price sounds dramatically lower than everything else you’ve seen, it’s usually quoting the first component only.
What else appears on a complete plan
Alongside the three components, a plan typically includes a cone beam scan that measures your bone and locates the nerve structures to be avoided, a periapical x-ray, and a surgical guide made from your scan. If the tooth is still in place, its removal is a separate item. If the site needs it, so is a graft.
Those last two are the biggest swing between patients. Someone whose tooth came out years ago with bone intact needs neither. Someone with a failing tooth still in the socket needs both.
What changes the number in your case
Whether the tooth is still present. How much bone you have, and whether grafting or a sinus lift is needed. Where the tooth sits. The material chosen for the crown. Whether sedation is used. Whether more than one tooth is treated at once.
Your follow-up care is included
Post-operative visits, suture removal, and the impression appointment when it’s time to build your crown aren’t billed on top of the treatment. They’re part of it.
Ask for your estimate in writing
If you’re paying for treatment yourself, you’re entitled to a written estimate of expected charges before treatment begins. Call (925) 940-1470 and we’ll go through your plan item by item.
Losing a tooth doesn’t have to be a disaster. You can have it replaced. With a Dental Implant, you can be assured that you have a strong, solid new tooth that will look and act like the rest of your teeth, leaving others to wonder if you had really lost a tooth in the first place! Call us at (925) 940-1470 to learn more.
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Our goal is to enhance your wellness through improved oral health, aesthetics, comfort, function, and happiness. Let us help you re-establish what nature provided – a healthy and functional set of teeth.