What is the Monetary value of Dental Implant Treatment?

Q: I would like to know if there is any studies that show the percentage of patients that are happy with their dental implants. Was it worth the high cost?

A: Mr. Swenson, my 10th grade advanced English teacher at JFK high in Bellmore NY taught us that we should never use the word “nice”. It’s over used and way to vague and is virtually a meaningless word. He also said never begin a sentence with the word “so”, which almost all talking heads on TV under the age of 39 use constantly when they respond to a question. Or worse: They use the phrase “sort of” as often as I blink. For God sakes; these are professionals!

When you ask who is “happy” with their dental implants; happy can be quite vague as well. A wall street journal article on depression a couple of years ago stated that one does not need to be happy; that is not the goal. You just have to be interested in something. Example: In his most recent 1000 page auto biography, Enzo Ferrari was a miserable sad person, but his passion for auto racing kept him alive into his 90’s with a powerful brand equal to Coca Cola. He was “interested”.

2009 Canadian study: Seventy percent of patients were willing to pay three times more than the current cost of conventional dentures for an implant-retained prosthesis. If monthly payment plans were used like Care Credit, 90% were “happy” to pay three times more.

2017 Swiss study: Two years after the same type of treatment above resulted in a “satisfaction/happiness” score of 9.68 out of 10. And, 11 out of 16 patients stated they would “not sell their implants for any amount of money”. Of the 5 who were willing to trade their implants for money, they asking price was 2 to 66 times what they paid for them.

Act now. Delaying treatment results in bone atrophy preventing you from being a candidate for permanent teeth with implants.