Quality, Time And Money

Question: Dear Dr. Crapo: Six months ago I celebrated my fiftieth birthday. The next day I broke one of my five remaining lower teeth. In the past several months, I’ve been shopping for dentures or dentures with implants and I’m more confused than ever – the price range is staggering. I know I’ve got to do something because I’ve only got my four lower front teeth. When I bite, I only hit on those four teeth and they make my upper denture tip out of my mouth, so I’m not chewing well. I saw an ad that said “teeth in a day”, but it was over $26,000; compared to having my teeth out and getting a denture for $1,000 – that’s some discrepancy. I’ve heard a lower denture doesn’t stay in too well, so I am thinking of getting implants. As I researched my options, most seemed to take six months or a year before I’d have teeth fastened to the implants, but then I saw “teeth in a day”. Why do you have to wait in most cases and why the high cost for “instant teeth”?

Answer: There’s an adage in business that states, “of the three components of service – quality, time and money, you can beneficially chose two but not all three”. For example, McDonald’s gets you an inexpensive meal in just a few minutes. Quality is suspect but McDonalds delivers hundreds of millions of meals every day throughout the world. So if you want high quality in an instant, such as teeth in a day, you pay about 10-20% more. Let me give you some examples. The first case scenario, “teeth in a day”, is a service where all the necessary surgery plus the implants are placed and the teeth are loaded onto the implants. In this service the surgery is unique, allowing teeth to be placed the same day as the implants. If $26,000 is the baseline you saw, then the following scenarios show you a range of services and approximate costs.

Case Scenario #2 Number of Implants: 4-6 Implants per arch* Wait Time: 3 – 6 Months Cost Reductions: 10 – 20%

Case Scenario #3 Number of Implants: 4-5 Implants per arch –Snap System** Wait Time: 3 – 4 Months Cost Reductions: 50%

Case Scenario #4 Number of Implants: 2-3 Implants per arch – Snap System Wait Time: 3 – 4 Months Cost Reductions: 60%

Case Scenario #5 Number of Implants: 6 Mini Implants Wait Time: 3 Months Cost Reductions: 60 – 70%

* An arch represents your lower jaw or upper jaw. ** Teeth fixed to the implants by snaps much like the snap buttons on a western shirt Visiting with a dentist who can provide these services will help you determine your wants, needs and expectations.

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