Archive for the ‘Dentures’ Category

Does dental insurance ever cover dental implants?

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

I am missing all of my upper teeth. I’ve been wearing a full upper denture, but it is just not working for me anymore, and my dentist has suggested dental implants. They are really expensive! Do you know of any dental insurance plans that cover implants?

Gloria in Abilene

Dear Gloria,

You might have a tough decision to make. Depending on how long you have been missing your upper teeth, your upper jaw may have deteriorated quite a bit. Many people don’t realize until it is too late that having all of your teeth removed causes your jaw bones to actually shrink. After several years, your jaw can deteriorate to the point where you can no longer wear a denture. It sounds like you might be there now.

And it is a sad truth that you will not find a dental insurance company that will pay for dental implants. If you consider the situation from the dental insurance company’s point of view, it would make little sense to sell you a policy and then pay out many times the cost of the policy for your dental care.

If you or a spouse has dental insurance available through a place of employment, that might be your best chance for getting any help at all with the cost of your dental implants. Though dental plans through employers generally offer the best service coverage, they rarely pay for dental implants. They will pay for the cheapest treatment, which is not going to be dental implants, and many companies have $500-%1,000 annual caps on services, which does not go far towards extensive dental treatment.

An alternative for you might be to get some dental implants to anchor an upper denture. Even a few dental implants will help slow the deterioration of your upper jaw bone.

Talk to your dentist candidly about affordable options.

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Tuesday, July 28th, 2009

I was told today that in order to have dentures I would have to have these bony ridges on the roof of my mouth shaved. Be honest is this going to be as painful as they said? It would seem that my ridges are the worst my dentist has ever seen in over 100 thousand patients. Lucky me. He says without the shaving the dentures will not fit properly. Any advise and all honesty welcomed. It sounds like a horrible procedure.

 Thank you
Salina from Georgia

Salina,
That bony ridge is called a taurus, and if it’s really big it can prevent the proper fitting of a removable denture. I don’t think having it removed is as bad as having all your teeth out, but I wouldn’t call it fun, either. The surgery is a little tricky, so you want to be sure that the dentist doing this has done it before. If you’re nervous about it, I’d recommend being sedated. Sleep dentistry can make any dental appointment a piece of cake.

But I wonder if you’ve fully thought about the option of dental implants instead of removable dentures? When all your teeth are extracted, your body begins to resorb all that bone that used to hold your teeth. As your jaw shrinks, over maybe twenty years or so it will get so that your mouth won’t even be able to hold a denture comfortably. Your face shrivels up with what is called facial collapse. But the placement of dental implants prevents that bone resorption, plus you can go on eating and chewing normally.

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