Alternative to Implant

Andrew H

Hello,

My front tooth has an old root canal treatment and became infected again last year. My dentist cut into the gum and then carried out another root canal treatment to clear up the infection.

While the tooth was infected it became loose and is now prominent (this was years after wearing a train track brace to get them stright) and the gum seems to be receding with the infection now coming back.

I don't have the money at this time for an implant and prob won't for a couple of years. I plan on getting an implant in the future as the tooth beside it is an implant. Can anyone advise of alternative treatment to implant. Do Dentist in Ireland offer a payment plan?

Thanks,
Andrew

Oral Surgeon

Sorry to hear Andrew,

You have 5 options for any gap;

• leave it alone
• close the space with braces (works in the young with back spaces)
• denture
• bridge
• implant

If you have had a failed root canal with infection requiring incision and drainage and gum recession/periodontal disease- then the bone in this site is less than ideal for an implant as is, you would most likely need a bone grafting procedure for implant placement....

Back to your question,

• a partial denture would work temporarily but you won't love it, cost 300 ish
• a temporary bridge stuck to the adjacent tooth/ teeth may work (hard to say in your case). If the adjacent tooth is an implant, you may have to just cantilever the temporary off one tooth...
• depending on the implant beside it, one might consider constructing 2 teeth on this one fixture temporarily....

As for payment plans, as previously posted, dentists don't want the hassle of registering with the financial regulator so don't expect the same sort of payment plans you have from car garages or even tv shops etc. Some allow payment in increments spread over the length of the treatment (6month treatment- you pay 6 monthly instalments of x). All dentist I know of have one rule- you are fully paid up on insertion of the final work...!
Instead of using the dentist as a bank, why not just go to the bank or credit union and get the funds from them as they do loans and we do teeth.....?

Good luck,
OS

Andrew H

Thanks for the reply OS. I've a lot to consider.

Andrew