So other options besides replacing a tooth with a dental implant could be a bridge, a partial flipper, something that’s removable. Those are not your ideal options. So with a bridge, what you end up having to do is cut down adjacent teeth to have something that fits over top of those teeth to replace the missing tooth in the middle. Like driving over a bridge, you can have an abutment on either side and then you’re going to make your way across. You have to sacrifice tooth structure to do that. Once you sacrifice that tooth structure, you’re not getting it back. You don’t want to go down that road because that won’t last you forever either. That’s only a temporary option. Most bridges are going to last about 10 years. Most of them, less than that. Then you’re going to turn around, you’re going to do it again. Every time you touch that tooth, you’re going to lose more and more tooth structure ultimately until you lose both of those pure abutments for those teeth on either side.

A partial, another replacement option is a bad solution as well because you’re still losing bone underneath that area. So a partial that fits great today won’t fit great a year from now because the substructure that it’s sitting on top of is deteriorating and you’ll end up replacing that over and over and over. Not only are you going to lose the bone in that one central area where you lost the tooth, but you’re going to lose the bone on the surrounding teeth as well. As you lose that bone, now you’re adding more teeth to partials because you just continue to lose teeth. Every partial eventually becomes a full denture because it’s just a domino effect. So a bridge in total will cost almost the same as replacing a tooth with an implant and then you think, well, if you replaced it with an implant, you paid for that one single time. You replace it with a bridge, you’re going to pay for it multiple times over that lifetime of that bridge or those teeth are your lifetime in general. So ideally you’re going to get about three bridges. Maybe if you’re really lucky and you’re prepping natural teeth on either side before you’re going to lose both of those teeth. By the time you paid for three bridges, you’ve invested three, maybe four times as much money and your time into those adjacent teeth to do that work versus doing it one time and then moving on with that implant.

Who wants to take their teeth out? No one wants to take their teeth out or think that they’re going to eat something sticky or tacky and their teeth are going to come out while they’re eating that food. Or you’re going to take them out at night and you’re going to clean them every single night and then place them in that cup and then put them back in the next day. You want something that’s going to stay in place, that’s going to function like real teeth. Partial’s always, it’s meant to come in and out. So something that’s meant to come in and out is going to come out when you don’t want it to come out versus a dental implant, which is going to go in that position. It’s going to stay in that position and you’re going to be able to eat, function, and do exactly like you would with a normal tooth without having to think about that again. Yes, initially, you might think that you’re investing less money into a bridge or especially a partial denture, but long term, you’re going to invest more money into that because you’re going to replace that so many times. Like we said, you’re going to add more teeth to that over time as well. Not only your financial investment, but your time as well versus replacing it with that implant that first time and then moving on. Your initial investment is actually less over 10, 20, 30 years than you were to replace it with a bridge or a partial denture.