Are you looking for cheap options for missing teeth replacement? If yes, you’re not alone; you’re just one of the many people seeking to restore their precious smiles within their limited financial means.
Losing teeth comes with lots of challenges – eating difficulties, self-image issues and many more – none of which can be prevented unless you get timely teeth replacement. While most patients understand the significance of being proactive in replacing missing teeth, getting access to affordable replacement options poses yet another challenge for them. Fortunately, the advancements in restorative dentistry have given rise to multiple affordable teeth replacement options, including affordable dentures and others.
In this blog, we’ll do a comparison of affordable dentures vs other cheap options for missing teeth, helping you pick the one that best suits your budget and needs!
Affordable Dentures: A Solution To Complete Edentulism
Let’s first talk about affordable dentures, which are perhaps one of the most commonly used restorative devices all around the globe by completing edentulous patients (patients that have lost all or almost all of their natural teeth).
Basically, a denture is a restorative device consisting of a series of artificial teeth joined together to form an artificial dental arch, resting on a soft and flexible base from where it attaches to the gums. It may be ‘complete’ (replacing your entire natural dental arch) or ‘partial’ (replacing a part of the arch) depending on the extent of your tooth loss.
Let’s discuss two types of affordable dentures:
- Traditional Dentures
Traditional dentures are the ones that we described earlier – having a series of artificial teeth (that function like natural teeth, helping you with chewing and biting) resting on a denture base (that acts like a foundation for the artificial teeth). They are placed directly on the patient’s gums, where the denture base forms an adhesion with the gums by means of the natural suction forces created between them, thereby restoring missing teeth. They can be removed by the patient as needed.
Affordability:
Traditional dentures are one of the most affordable restorative options because of their:
- Simple design and a relatively cheaper manufacturing cost
- Inexpensive and easily available materials (such as acrylic resin and composite plastics)
- Easy and straightforward placement – no surgery required
- Mass-production with standardized methods (using prefabricated moulds and teeth), further reducing manufacturing costs
- Implant Dentures
Although very affordable, traditional removable dentures have a long list of downsides – they can slip or move easily, cause gum irritation, cause difficulty in eating certain foods, require frequent replacements, etc. – making them unfit for long-term use.
Fortunately, there’s a superior alternative to traditional dentures that offers ideal stability, comfort, longevity and exquisite aesthetics – mimicking natural teeth in every single aspect! We’re talking about ‘implant dentures’!
Implant dentures present a ‘modern’ take on traditional dentures, revolutionizing their efficiency with the addition of dental implants (screw-like fixtures that are surgically inserted into the patient’s jawbone, onto which the dentures are anchored). These are a permanent and solid solution to missing teeth as opposed to traditional dentures, which only provide a superficial replacement.
Affordability:
Implant dentures are usually not considered affordable because people keep comparing them to the cost of traditional dentures. This is a wrong approach as both dentures have stark differences. Implant dentures would obviously cost more than traditional ones due to the surgical procedure involved and the added cost of implants,
so it’s unfair to compare their costs (it’s like comparing apples to oranges).
The truth is implant dentures can be affordable, but their cost usually varies depending on the type of dentures and implants you choose, as well as the provider. You can nevertheless make it affordable by doing the following:
- Opting for a flexible payment plan
- Choosing a treatment technique requiring few implants (for example all-on-4 or all-on-6 implants)
- Selecting a budget-friendly implant and denture material
Other Cheap Options For Missing Teeth
Besides affordable dentures, there are so many other cheap options for missing teeth that cater to less serious forms of tooth loss. These options include:
Affordable Crowns: For Localised Tooth Damage/Loss
There are two types of crowns:
- Traditional Crowns (For Damaged Teeth)
A traditional crown is a single artificial tooth (shaped exactly like a natural crown, hence the name) that’s used to fix a damaged tooth, given it has enough remaining natural structure to be able to support the crown. The damaged tooth is sculpted and shaved to form a base, over which the crown is glued, thereby restoring the tooth’s shape and function.
- Implant Crowns (For Missing Teeth)
Like implant dentures, crowns too have an implant-supported version, known as implant crowns. Unlike traditional crowns (which are meant to fix damaged teeth), implant crowns are meant to replace missing teeth. A dental implant is inserted at the site of the missing tooth, over which the crown is placed, permanently replacing the missing tooth.
Affordability:
Since crowns are indicated for localized tooth damage/loss rather than complete tooth loss, they’re way cheaper than dentures.
- Traditional crowns are indeed the more affordable option among the two crown types and may be the best option if you have remaining tooth structure to support it.
- However, if your tooth is damaged enough that it can’t be saved at all, then an implant crown is the most reliable option, though it would cost more.
Affordable Bridges: For Consecutive Missing Teeth
A crown is indicated to restore a single tooth or multiple individual teeth (if they are located far apart from each other). However, if the tooth loss is such that the missing teeth are in a consecutive position, then a dental bridge would be used to restore them. There are 2 types of dental bridges:
- Traditional Bridge
A traditional dental bridge is a restorative device that consists of crowns (similar to the traditional crowns described above) at both ends and pontics (fake teeth) suspended in the middle.
It requires sculpting and shaping of the adjacent healthy teeth (besides the missing teeth) so that the crowns can be placed on them and the pontics fill the empty spaces left by missing teeth. Basically the crowns serve as anchor points by attaching to the surrounding healthy teeth and the pontics’ bridges’ the empty gap in the middle.
- Implant Bridge
Traditional bridges restore missing teeth but at the cost of damaging the adjacent healthy teeth, which isn’t good for your long-term oral health (as every single tooth is valuable).
Implant bridges – in which the crowns are supported by dental implants instead of being fastened to healthy adjacent teeth – are a much better and more conservative alternative to traditional bridges, offering impeccable stability without damaging your healthy teeth.
Affordability:
Both traditional and implant bridges fall into the affordable category.
- A traditional bridge is definitely cheaper than an implant bridge due to its non-surgical placement and not-so-conservative placement process.
- If you prize the conservation of your natural teeth and your long-term dental health, then getting an implant bridge would be the best choice.
Conclusion
There are a plethora of affordable teeth replacement options available today (dentures, crowns and bridges), thanks to the advancements in restorative dentistry. While all these options are affordable, the choice between a traditional or implant-supported prosthesis would shape your actual treatment cost as well as the future of your dental health!
For more information about dental implants and related treatments, schedule a FREE consultation with New Smile Sacramento, a premium dental clinic located in Yuba City and Roseville. Talk to our team of implant experts and pave your way to a healthy and beautiful smile!
