Anyone get any bridgework done (dental, I mean)?

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It looks like a tooth will have to be removed.

I have 3 options (lucky me!):

- Maryland Bridge : one crown with two metal "wings" that glue onto the back of two other teeth. For some reason, though permanent braces (retainers) will last forever, these just HAPPEN to come unglued every 3 - 5 years. Hmmm. *scam* The etched and glued teeth can become rotten over time and then the surrounding teeth are also destroyed. But, of course, this might not happen.

- Regular Bridge : shave surrounding teeth into pegs and fit two caps over with a floating middle "tooth" in the middle. Also ruins surrounding teeth.

- Implant : my dentist seems to be really pushing this option, but from what I can tell the 95 - 95% success rate is exaggerated and they can also fail just a few months down the line or in a couple years, which could cause a hell of a lot of pain and would necessarily mean more surgery.

What say you?

― Jack O'Lantern, Thursday, 24 March 2005 18:28 (twenty-one years ago)

that should read "90 - 95% success rate"

― Jack O'Lantern, Thursday, 24 March 2005 18:29 (twenty-one years ago)

If you play any sports, Maryland Bridges can get knocked out very easily.

― jocelyn (Jocelyn), Thursday, 24 March 2005 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Are regular bridges just way more solid? It seems like such a shame to ruin two perfectly good teeth. If something goes wrong later, I might find myself missing three teeth instead of just one and then have to go and mess up a couple more teeth.

― Jack O'Lantern, Thursday, 24 March 2005 18:49 (twenty-one years ago)

For instance, in sports, what if my face got elbowed? the little pegs holding the regular bridge can't possibly be very strong. If they snap, that's worse than having a Maryland Bridge fall out, right?

― Jack O'Lantern, Thursday, 24 March 2005 18:50 (twenty-one years ago)

I need to have this done. I have been missing a front tooth for years as a result of a stupid and regretful fistfight. I've just been getting by with what they call a 'flipper', but I totally want to do the implant thing. Fuck a bridge -- my thoughts are the same as yours: it's bad enough that I lost one tooth, I don't want to have to ruin two other perfectly good teeth just to acommodate the bridge. So I'm gonna give the implant a shot. Just trying to save up the money at this point.

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Thursday, 24 March 2005 20:02 (twenty-one years ago)

Stormy, where is the missing tooth? I've been researching this online and it seems that the upper front teeth can be a bitch, but the lower front are the best chance of success. Even though they claim 90 - 95% success rates, in general, this isn't, like, permanent success. Sometimes it seems successes are counted even if the area is infected, in pain or whatever, just as long as the thing is still in your head. And, after all that money, it can fail in a few months or a few years after you've had a "success". Success rate after 10 years is supposedly 80%... so, I'm thinking that number is probably a little high, since in 1991 the actual number reported by dentists was:

success rate (over time) for implants as viewd and reported by dentists themselves:

a. less than one year (12%)
b. 1-2 years (27%)
c. 3-5 years (43%)
d. 6-10 years (12%)
e. Longer than 10 years (6%)

― Jack O'Lantern, Thursday, 24 March 2005 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Jack O'Latern -- mine's a bottom front.

hmmm.. yeah, those figures don't look so hot, you are correct. To be honest, I haven't really researched it that heavily. I've been content to make do with the flipper for a few years now and have never had a problem. If I was to get this done it wouldn't be for another couple years probably, so I hadn't really begun to research too much yet. But yeah, those numbers do give me pause; then again, that's almost 15 years ago...

― Stormy Davis (diamond), Thursday, 24 March 2005 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

I have a regular bridge, but it's on side teeth. It's almost 20 years old, no problems at all with it. I had wanted the post impplant too, but I had waited too long with no tooth and the dentist said the bone there had receded too much to hold a post.

― nickn (nickn), Friday, 25 March 2005 01:35 (twenty-one years ago)

thirteen years pass...

I sure hope those numbers above have improved in 15 years...I had the posts put in for an implant yesterday; the second part of the work will be in August. No recovery pain at all today, so I'll be back at work tomorrow.

I had a bridge done three or four years ago, and that's been fine, but this time my dentist suggested the implant (opposite side of the mouth). I didn't bank on waiting around for 10 years to find out if it's a success, though.

― clemenza, Tuesday, 27 March 2018 18:40 (eight years ago)

four months pass...

First part of the second part this afternoon--nothing at all, didn't even require freezing.

At one point, my long-time dentist said "See this wrench? $800." I asked if I could hold it--like John Travolta in Pulp Fiction, I wanted to know what an $800 wrench felt like.

― clemenza, Thursday, 9 August 2018 21:55 (seven years ago)

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