Well, I scheduled my implant this week. I’m a bit nervous about the whole thing because there is always a chance it doesn’t take in your jaw bone. Then it will be a colossal waste of money.

My surgery isn’t until August 6th. Partly because of vacations scheduled for myself and for the doctors in July. Also, they had to coordinate between the dentist that will be doing the follow-up dental work because he needs 45 minutes before the surgery to remove the Maryland bridge that he cemented back in last week. If he isn’t able to get it back off then he’ll have to cut it off and then I’ll have to pay another 500 dollars for a temporary rubber tooth (not very excited about the thought of that since you have to take it out to eat). I’m really hoping that he didn’t cement it on too well.

So what is this going to cost me? Glad you asked…

The estimate that I was given is about $2,600 for my cost. Health insurance is covering a good share of the surgical procedure for implanting the post - I think I’m lucky there. Most of the cost is the additional dental work of making a crown, possible additional temporary tooth while the post heals and the cost of the post itself. Plus plenty of other incidentals. If you’d like to see a full estimate breakdown, leave a comment and I’ll see about posting the info if readers want to see it. Unfortunately, where I work we don’t have dental insurance but just a spending account of $1,000 which really doesn’t cover very much for a family of 5. So, most of the cost will be coming out of my pocket. I looked into using a dental plan but the dentist that works with this surgeon doesn’t subscribe to any and to get the surgery paid for in-network I’m kind of stuck using them.

Here’s something else that I’ll likely do before the final post is made. I’m going to get my teeth whitened. I haven’t been able to do it because the old dental bridgework couldn’t be whitened. Since a new tooth will be made, I’ll have my teeth whitened and then match the new tooth to the whitened color. I’m a pop drinker and I’ve had 40 years of cola drinking staining my chops. I’ve significantly cut back over the years but the damage was already done.

I’ll write more as it gets closer to the surgery date…