Serving patients of Erwin, Jonesborough, and Greeneville TN
Have you been living with tooth loss? Two popular options in restorative dentistry are dental implants or a dental bridge. Which is right for you? This is a decision you should make together with your dentist, but for many people, the deciding factor in which procedure to choose is cost. However, you should weigh the pros and cons of each treatment option to decide which is best for your smile needs. Keep reading as Tusculum Dental Care presents the cost considerations of implants and bridges.
Get the facts on bridges and implants
Before proceeding, let’s discuss these tooth replacement options in more detail.
A dental bridge can be used to replace multiple lost teeth, as long as they are adjacent to one another in the mouth and there are healthy teeth on either side of the empty space. This single unit restoration is made with two dental crowns fused together with a pontic (or fake tooth) in the middle. The bridge is matched to the shape and color of your other healthy teeth, which allows it to blend with your smile. At Tusculum Dental Care, we can install dental bridges in Greeneville made of either PFM (a metal substructure covered with dental porcelain) or Prettau Zirconia so that the final product looks and feels incredibly natural. To prepare your teeth for the bridge, the teeth on both sides of the space are prepped by removing some of the natural tooth structure. This is necessary to make room for the crown portion of the bridge to fit over the two teeth. Once in place, the restoration looks like three separate teeth, although the middle part is actually a fake tooth.
A dental implant is unique in the realm of tooth replacement options because it can last the rest of your life, assuming you continue to practice a routine of good dental hygiene. An implant is used to replace a single missing tooth. The key imponent is the implant screw, which is made of titanium and inserted surgically into the jawbone. The screw then fuses with the bone, a healing process that takes anywhere from three to six months. Once healing completes, your implant is topped with a crown to complete the process. Another advantage of choosing dental implants is that it doesn’t involve filing down or preparing surrounding teeth because the implant is self-supporting.
Breaking down the cost
A dental bridge is going to have a significantly lower up-front cost than an implant for a couple of reasons. First, placing the bridge is not nearly as intensive a process. Second, the materials used to make your dental bridge cost less. If you need to replace multiple missing teeth, receiving an implant to replace each one could be cost-prohibitive for you. However, consider that the average effective lifespan of a dental bridge is about 10 years. Meanwhile, as mentioned, an implant can last the rest of your life. With that in mind, when figuring in total cost over a lifetime, a bridge is more expensive than an implant.
The cost of a bridge or a dental implant may vary, depending on several factors, including:
- How many teeth are being replaced
- Where the tooth is located (replacing molars may cost more than a front tooth)
- Additional procedures you may need to obtain the best results
To find out the cost of your tooth replacement, schedule a consultation with an implant dentist near you in Greeneville today.
Tooth Replacement in Greeneville
Whether you want a dental bridge, an implant, or you are undecided about which one is right for you, the team at Tusculum Dental Care is here to restore your smile and chewing ability. We meet with each patient for a consultation before beginning work on any restorative procedure to ensure he or she is a good candidate. And we never believe that cost should be the deciding factor in your level of care. That’s why we accept a variety of different payment options and work with third-party financing partners. To find out more about our restorative dentistry procedures or financial policies, call our office at (423) 639-7575.
Tusculum Dental Care is proud to serve the oral health needs of our patients in the areas of Greeneville, Jonesborough, and Erwin in Tennessee.