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Last updated on April 1st, 2025 at 11:34 pm
When considering dental implant treatment, it is important to ask questions of your provider. These must ask questions will help you understand the provider’s treatment fees, experience, advantages of implants over less expensive options, your expected outcome and more. In this article you will learn the most important questions to ask your implant provider before beginning treatment. Here are a few important questions to ask and why.
As dental implant procedures are commonly split between, 1. the surgical specialist office (implant surgery), and 2. the general dentist office (prosthetic teeth), communications on the total cost may become convoluted if you don’t seek complete clarity.
For instance, a full mouth dental implant procedure may cost as much as $26,000 total for an upper or lower jaw. The surgical specialist office may assess a fee of $13,000 for the implant surgery. The general dentist office may assess the exact same $13,000 fee for the final prosthetic teeth. In this scenario, it is conceivable that you may assume the total cost of your procedure is only $13,000. After all, both offices told you the same amount. In actuality the total cost is $26,000 ($13,000 x 2). There are advantages to having an implant procedure split between a surgeon’s office and a general dentist’s office. When this is the case, understanding the total costs upfront will allow you to plan adequately for your implant procedure.
Establishing expectations for your dental implant procedure, early on, will help prepare you for what is to come. The expectations of replacing a single missing tooth compared with replacing a full set of teeth are much different. Your timeline will depend on the type of dental implant procedure that is being proposed. For instance, depending on your available bone, a single dental implant may be completed in as few as two-and-half months. Yet if the area of your mouth will require a bone graft or sinus lift, it is conceivable that your implant may take as long as six to 10-months until completion. A full arch dental implant procedure can take as few as three months, or as long as nine months to reach completion. Having a realistic timeline will help to ease your anxiety through each phase of the process until completion.
For a single dental implant surgery, local anesthesia—numbing of the immediate surgical sight, only—to prevent pain during the surgery is quite common. Many patients often discover that over-the-counter pain medication is enough to manage post-treatment discomfort for single dental implant cases, but you may prefer a prescription for added assurance. In larger cases, such as full arch dental implant procedures, some form of sedation dentistry is commonly administered to place the patient in a very relaxed state, often allowing a patient to sleep through much of the implant surgery. Use of prescribed medication is very common in larger implant surgeries. In either case, discussing pain management prior to treatment, to your satisfaction, should help to ease any anxiety and keep discomfort to an absolute minimum.
This question is particularly important for two types of implant surgeries: 1. The first is a single tooth implant in the front of your mouth. This will usually take about three months for the implant to heal before a final crown can be delivered. In the meantime, what does this mean for your smile? You will want your implant surgeon to explain their process of providing a temporary implant crown immediately following the implant surgery. The goal is avoid a huge gap in the area of your implant. You will also benefit to avoid the inconvenience of a removable temporary tooth during this healing period. 2. The second instance where this question becomes important is when planning for a full arch dental implant surgery. When an entire set of teeth are being replaced, ideally, you want to avoid being forced to wear a traditional removable denture your implant healing period. Having a provisional set of teeth that are screwed down to your dental implants is preferable over a removable denture that comes in and out of your mouth and may be loose.
Financing a dental implant procedure can help make your needed treatment affordable. It helps to understand the options for treatment finance accepted by your provider. While regular credit cards may be a better choice for smaller procedures, the large dental implant cases, which can be in excess of $20,000+, may be better managed using a patient finance company. There are patient finance companies established to meet your borrowing needs more adequately.
For instance, if you require a full arch dental implant procedure for your upper and lower jaws, which may cost $48,000 total, one patient finance institution may limit you to $10,000, while a different lender may approve you for as much as $75,000. One finance company may limit your payment terms to five years, while another may offer up to 12-year repay terms. Establishing a payment plan through the right patient finance company can be the difference in making your dental implant treatment affordable.
Understanding a surgeon’s dental implant credentials is always a good thing. An experienced implant surgeon is confident about their credentials and won’t mind discussing them with you. It’s always best if the implant provider can show you previous cases that they he or she have performed. Ideally, these cases would be very similar to the treatment plan that is being proposed for your. Reviewing previous cases may generate additional questions for you that will potentially help your implant provider tailor your case to fit your needs. For instance, you may witness something in a case from the dentist’s portfolio that you are not particularly impressed with. Perhaps the teeth appear to be larger than what you prefer for yourself. This is an excellent opportunity to make your preferences known based on reviewing actual cases with your dentist.
There are not many dental implant provider directories where experienced dental implant surgeons can be found. TeethXpress.com is the only such resources endorsed on this website. TeethXpress.com lists more than 300 well trained and experienced dental implant surgeons. While this website, PayingForDentalImplants.com, was established primarily as a resource for making dental implants affordable, TeethXpress.com is a lasting authority where thousands visit each month to educate themselves on all things dental implants, patient experiences, and most importantly, to find an experienced implant dentist where they live.
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