Yesterday I had my appoint to had my new permanent bridge installed. But before the dentist glued it in, he had me check it out with a mirror. The first thing I noticed was that the color was slightly different. The bridge was a little more yellow than my natural teeth. So my dentist arranged to have me visit the lab that made the bridge. The woman who would do the coloring was leaving for the day, so I need to call today to make an appointment.
So I called her this morning, and arranged to meet her around lunch time. The office was only about 15 minutes away. I arrived on time, and sat in the front for a few minutes till she was ready for me. Her name was Angie, and she was very nice. She had me sit in a dentist type chair. She compared the bridge to my natural teeth, and started painting on it with a tiny brush. She spent maybe 10-15 minutes working on it. When she was done, she took it back to bake it.
I took a nap and waited. Eventually she was ready for me. She had me hold it up and check it with a mirror. It looked very close. She even painted on some white streaks/wear marks I have on my front teeth. Then she had me go outside to compare then under sunlight. They still looked very close. I understand it is difficult to match tetracycline stained teeth, as they aren’t one solid color. The outside is sort of translucent, with a sort of a grayish interior. But she did a very good job. She decided that she would make some small subtle changes to improve it even more. Then she would put a clear coat on to the tooth and bake it on.
She said she would send the bridge back to my dentist tomorrow. Not sure when I will be able to get it installed. I am guessing I will hear back from the dentist tomorrow or maybe next week.
Today was my appointment to get my permanent bridge installed. I arrived at 2:30 and sat in the waiting room for a while, then they brought me back. The dentist was finishing up with another patient, so I took a short nap, then he was ready for me. They numbed me up with novocaine. Again, this hurt, because they really had to get it deep. It almost felt like the needle was going to come out my nose.
Removing the temporary bridge was easier than I expected. He simply clamped on to it with these needle nose things. Forceps? Wiggled it, and it came out, and went sailing across the floor. He fit the new bridge in. Then he pulled it out to make slight adjustments to it. After a while, he put it in, and gave me a mirror. I looked at it, and found it didn’t quite match the color of my natural teeth. It was bit more yellow. He looked, and agreed. I am wondering now, why he didn’t notice this himself before he had me look at it. Maybe he thought I would accept it?
Anyway, he reinstalled the temporary bridge which had broken. But he managed to fix it. I have the permanent bridge in a box out in my car. I am going to call and make an appointment with the lab that made the permanent bridge. They should be able to fix it to more accurately match the tetracycline stained color of my natural teeth. Hopefully they can do it tomorrow.
This morning I had my appointment to get my temporary bridge. Before they started to remove the remains of the old bridge, they took some molds of my teeth as they already were. They had me keep my retainer with the prothetic tooth in.
Then they used topical anasthetic to numb my gums. Then they gave me novocaine. This hurt some as they really had to get the needle deep to get to up by my roots. The dentist said I had long roots. Then he started putting notches on the old crowns. I had a little pain from the vibrations, so they gave me some more novocaine.
Once there were notched in the old crowns, he used a tool to pry apart the notch which broke off the old crown. At least this is what it looked like from my vantage point.
He clean up the teeth that were under the crowns. He said there was a little decay, but nothing major. Then there was some more molds taken.
They squirted some stuff into one of the molds, and this was to become my temporary bridge. He said it was made of acrylic. The permanent bridge would had metal inside and porcelain and would stronger.
The dentist pulled the temporary bridge out of the mold and cleaned it up. They glued it to the old teeth that were under the old crowns. He seemed to spend some time coloring it and they used a uv light to set the color stuff.
When I looked in a mirror, the results were great. I can’t wait to see what the permanent bridge looks like. Since the temporary bridge is made of acrylic, it’s not as strong. So I need to be careful about eating anything hard or sticky with those teeth.
I have an appointment in a few weeks to get the permanent bridge. The bridge is costing me about $1700 out of pocket. The insurance company is covering about 40%.
I got a letter in the mail today from the insurance company! They will cover my replacement bridge. Well, at least part of it. They will cover 40% of the porcelain bridge crowns, and the porcelain pontic. Seeing that these cost about $950 each, that is a heck of a savings. They wont cover the retainer core buildup, whatever that is. I talked to the receptionist at the dentist office, and she said that I might not even need the buildup. That they include that on all bridge pre-estimates just in case it is needed.
I made an appointment to get my bridge replaced in a couple weeks. Apparently it will take a couple visits. One they will remove the old bridge, and take molds, and give me a temporary bridge. Then another appointment a few weeks later to get the permanent bridge.
When i got my braces, they had to cut my old bridge into parts. But now that my teeth are straight, I need to get a replacement bridge. I had the dentist send in for a pre-estimate of coverage. I waited and waited. Finally I got a letter from the insurance company saying that it was being denied because they had no record of that tooth being removed in the first place. I had that original bridge put in when I was a kid. It was there for about 30 years. And I am not sure there ever was a tooth in that location. What ticks me off is that I had upgraded my insurance to cover my braces. And I left it upgraded in anticipation of needing the bridge! It would suck if they don’t cover it. The dentist is going to write a letter to the insurance company explaining the circumstances of the bridge being destroyed. Hopefully they will cover it.