Implant to replace bridge?

[tiffythom]

I have a bridge on the upper front of my teeth. Teeth 7, 8, 9,10 & 11 are the anchors. The bridge or caps cover teeth 6,7,8.9&10. I have had the bridge for 20 years. I recently had tooth 11shatter and fall off leaving the silver under bridge part showing. I went to my dentist who put a temporary on it costing $320. To replace one side of the bridge will cost $2700.00 and it won't necessarily match the other side so if I want to replace both sides, that will cost $5400.00. My father in law recently got implants for all of his teeth which only cost him $7000.00. I am wondering if getting implants to replace the bridge would be better and less expensive. I am 43 and all my existing teeth and gums are in good condition. I live in Northern California - Humboldt County.

[Jerome Tsang, DDS]

You should probably discuss the specifics of your case with your dentist.  It depends on the extent of damage to other teeth. It sounds like they are fine.  Whats the reason for replacement of the "other side" of the bridge?  You can always place implants at a later time as well.

[Jerome Tsang, DDS]

Hm.  I understand.  If there's no health reason to replace it and its purely cosmetic, then its up to you on how you feel about that.  I'm pretty sure that the dentist can match them fairly closely to whats existing on the other side.  I think he's just informing you that it MAY not match and trying to keep your expectations fairly realistic.  As a dentist, its bad to do dental work without informing the patient of potential complications including the cosmetics because it may fail to meet your expectations.  You're a good doctor if you can predict the future and warn you ahead of time.  You're a bad doctor if you try to explain things after the fact cause it sounds like you're making excuses.  So I can understand why he/she is warning you in case it doesn't meet your expectations.  

As for keeping your teeth versus implants, you can't really go wrong either way.  My personal opinion is to keep your teeth for as long as you can only because nothing can beat what mother nature's given you.  But there's always a risk that you may get a cavity or have a problem with the bridge and require an implant later.

[tiffythom]

I would replace the other side too so they would match. The dentist said that he would "try to match" the damaged side with the existing but couldn't promise they'd be a perfect match. So if the other side may not last another year or two before needing replaced, they should get both replaced so they match, etc...