Can you advise me, please? I have a front tooth that is brown and ugly because of an injury to it involving me, my husband, and a lightsaber. Now that the tooth is brown, I find it embarrassing to smile. I spoke with my dentist about it and he said because there is no longer a root there, I will have to get a dental implant. When he quoted me the price, I almost choked. I said I didn’t have that kind of money and all he said was that is the procedure that will fix it. I also have three teeth that need fillings and can’t afford to spend all my money on one tooth. Is there any chance whitening it will work?
Emily
Dear Emily,
I am going to be very blunt and tell you that you need to switch dentists. Your dentist is under an ethical obligation to give you all of your options and you DO have options. The fact that you told him you didn’t have the money for the procedure he suggested, which by the way is the most expensive one, and he still didn’t give you your other options tells me he lacks ethics, character, and compassion.
While teeth whitening will not help in this case, you can get some less expensive tooth replacements. There are affordable dental implants, called mini implants, but those are used to stabilize a denture and are not able to retain a dental crown so don’t let a dentist try to talk you into one in your particular case.
Some other options you can look into, going from most stable to least are:
- Dental Bridge. This suspends a false tooth between two different dental crowns.
- Removable partial denture. This can be clipped to your teeth.
- Dental Flipper. This can also clip to your teeth or stay in by suction.
Find a dentist who is willing to give you all of your options and go from there.
This blog is brought to you by Baton Rouge Dentist Dr. Steven Collins.