Mrs Singh from Glasgow came to our Glasgow dental practice with pain from an upper left canine (eye tooth) which had been rumbling on for several months.
Her dentist referred her for an opinion on the possibility of a dental implant to replace this tooth. He had made considerable efforts to relieve her symptoms with treatment on the NHS including root canal therapy.
The patient, who smokes 5 cigarettes daily, was a little unsure as to whether pain had been coming from the adjacent incisor which had a black NHS amalgam filing in the palatal surface.
Her dentist had offered her a removable denture following extraction of one or two teeth. Mrs Singh wanted more cosmetic dental treatments made available.
We can see from the photographs the effects of smoking in terms of staining.
They also highlight the significant amounts of metal involved in many NHS treatments.
Dental implant requiring bone graft
Xray analysis revealed that the old porcelain crown had an infection beneath the canine and the tooth was removed.
This was allowed a 6-8 week settling period to ensure the dental implant wasn’t placed in infected bone.
Due to a history of infection, root canal treatments, fractured root surgical repair, and metal post, the damage to bone was significant.
The socket required treatment with bone graft materials and a delayed tooth implant placement was indicated.
The graft materials used in this process are derived from bovine bone and porcine skin. The bone can be augmented to cover the exposed threads on a titanium implant, which may be unsupported and at risk of failure to integrate. The porcine membrane covers over the graft material, which in turn covers the implant itself.
Evidently, the costs in these procedures are quite high compared to the price of normal dental treatment.
Dr Murphy charges £250 for this additional implant grafting procedure, sufficient to cover material fees but adding only a relatively small percentage to total costs.
Ultimately two porcelain bonded crowns were placed on the implant and adjacent tooth, eliminating some of the black or dark areas on the NHS crown and filling.
Mrs Singh’s implant crown cost £2100 including the gold post. Her adjacent porcelain bonded crown on her own incisor cost £350.
She has been without pain for several months now and is happy that she managed to avoid wearing a removable denture.
She will come back to Appletree annually for an implant examination and ongoing x-ray analysis. Meanwhile, she has returned to her regular dentist for general dental care and check-ups every six months.