Dental Implant Cost

Dental implants are expensive.  Nevertheless, they are still becoming very popular.  This is especially true amongst people within the aging Baby Boomer generation who are looking for an alternative to replacing their teeth with bridges or dentures.

You will find that the cost of dental implants are highly dependent upon the health and strength of your underlying jaw bone.  Herein you will find that the price ranges from $1,000 to $2,500 per tooth to between $30,000 and $40,000 for an entire set of teeth.  While this is not a small cost, you need to understand that you are paying for new teeth that you will have for the rest of your life.  Unfortunately, these costs are rarely covered by insurance unless you have lost your teeth because of an accidental injury.  This is why a lot of dentists have created ways for their patients to finance the costs of these dental implants.

Understanding What You Are Paying For

As you may have noticed, there is a wide range in the costs of dental implants. This is because each patient’s jawbone is different.  For those patients whose jawbone is not dense enough to securely hold an implant, an extra bone will need to be grafted into the area where the implant is going to be placed.  However, if you have a healthy jawbone, then your dental implant costs will cover the removal of the existing teeth that are still intact, as well as the implantation of a titanium (the metal of choice because it does not cause any negative reactions in the tissues where it is placed) rod into your old tooth’s socket.

It will then take between 3 to 6 months for the healing process to be complete. Once this healing has occurred you will have to return to your dentist to have the rod lifted above your gum line.  This is also when your dentist will make a cast that will be used to create a ceramic crown that will function as your new tooth.

All of these procedures are included in the cost of your dental implants.  Each of these procedures has to be done for each of your teeth.  Of course, if you have an unhealthy jawbone you will also have to have a bone graft done, which will make for a much longer procedure.  Bone grafts are also much more expensive because not only do they use your own bone but they also require that an orthopedic surgeon harvest bone in a hospital.

The Latest Dental Implant Technique

There is a new type of dental implant that is available today.  It involves using both a titanium rod and a temporary crown.  These are placed into the socket where your tooth has been extracted from.  The dentist will then expand the titanium rod so as to fill the socket.  This will make the implant a lot more secure than it usually at this time of the process.  Furthermore, it will also cut your healing and fusing time by as much as 50%.

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