How can we help you?
Educating our patients about the value of conscientious oral health care is one of our top priorities. When you're informed, it's easier to understand why you need a certain procedure and how it will benefit you.
We encourage and welcome all questions! It's essential for you to be involved with your own care, and your questions help us understand what your expectations are and what's important to you.
Here are a few frequently asked questions to get you started, but you may have others that you don't see listed. In this case, please call our Chattanooga dental office or fill out our handy online contact form.
Crowns & Bridges
Let me answer this by telling a story. I’m always surprised by how expensive tires are when I go the mechanic. The last flat tire that I had replaced was almost $200. If a mechanic told me that I need to replace my tires every 50K miles and everytime I do that, it’s going to be almost $800, OR I could buy 4 ‘ultra long distance’ tires that last 200K miles for $1500. I would immediately do the math and know that I probably wouldn’t need to buy tires again if I buy the longer lasting tires. That’s how I feel about implants. With a success rate of greater than 95%, with proper care, dental implants are a great restorative option.
It’s also nice to keep a one tooth problem a one tooth problem, meaning that if you lose one tooth, put back one tooth- don’t bring two other teeth into the mix unnecessarily. When only looking at replacing one tooth with an implant or getting bridge, in normal cases, the implant is only about 25% more. I also say that there are still cases that a traditional bridge is a better option, but with the advancement of implant technology and surgical techniques, they are becoming more rare.
Short answer- veneers only cover the front of teeth, and crowns cover the whole tooth. Some things can prevent people from getting veneers like a poor bite or grinding habit (Bruxism).