Re: Root Canal - Front Tooth
Jojo,
Couple of things I would like to point out, not meant to argue with you, but would like to see your reasonings:
1: I would not instantly blame the root canal, you had it there for 39 years, and the average life of one is 7-10 years. Yes, the teeth were infected when you took them out, but you did have that tooth in 30 years longer than any dentist will tell you a
root canal will last. You mentioned you had the crown replaced multiple times, and the
root canal could have become infected at any other those replacement times.
I am not saying those teeth did not need to come out, I personally do not like retreatment of
root canals (mostly because implants have much better success rates). All I am saying is
root canals have their place, and yours obviously lasted much longer than most.
Amalgams - I do not tend to try to argue this one with many people as long as they realize that composite restorations last only 5-7 years, while
Amalgams tend to last 20+. Composites are becoming much better than they were only a few years ago, and in my practice I only put in
Amalgams under very specific conditions.
Bridge vs. implants: Why did you decide you wanted a bridge instead? You mentioned the metal, but titanium implants are extremely biocompatable, more so than gold. Even most all-porcelain crowns/bridges have some metal ions within their base matrix.
One of the most important ideas any good dentist will tell you is that enamel is better than any man-made replacement we can put in there. If you need crowns on the adjacent teeth to a space, absolutely a bridge is a good option. However, I would stress to any patient that implants are better than bridges if the adjacent teeth are healthy because you do not have to damage 2 more teeth in order to replace the space. Not to mention implants last forever, bridges have a 7-10 year average life span.
Ozzie, if you are still around, how is the maryland bridge working? Dentists in the US have stopped being taught how to do them because they have design flaws and implants have a much better prognosis. I have only seen two, and they fell out before the patient ever came to me, I have yet to see a functional one.