Theriot Family Dental

Will Medical Insurance Cover Dental Implants?

Posted by writeradmin

I am having major problems with my dental issues. Periodontal disease means root planing/scaling every six months on top of my other dental care. I’m thinking it may be easier to just remove my upper teeth and get dental implants. Because this is due to a disease, would my medical insurance cover this? If so, how much of it do you think they will cover?

Sara


Dear Sara,

Implant overdentures image

 

First, I am sorry you have so much to deal with right now. I know it is challenging. Unfortunately, periodontal disease is considered a dental issue. Because of that, medical insurance will tell you that you have to rely on your dental insurance for this. Your best option is saving your natural teeth. If you absolutely don’t want to do that or it turns out that your teeth are unsavable, I would get dental implants, but you can expect even dental insurance to only pay for a portion.

They can be a bit pricey. Because it is your upper teeth that you are dealing with, you would get away with a removable dentures. These are held in by suction. Be aware that many patients find the denture plate very uncomfortable and can cause gagging. It also reduces your chewing capacity a lot. So, go into it eyes wide open.

If you were talking about your lower teeth, that would be a different story. Those dentures would be held in by sitting on the ridge of your lower jawbone.  Once your teeth are removed your body recognized there are no longer teeth there to support. As a result, it begins to resorb the minerals in your jawbone no longer needed to support anything in order to use them elsewhere in your body. It is a great use of your body’s resources.

Unfortunately, it does have a side effect of slowly shrinking your jawbone. After ten to twenty years, depending on how fast your body does resorption, you will no longer have enough bone left to retain your dentures in your mouth. In dental circles, this is known as facial collapse. The only way to prevent this is to keep your natural teeth as healthy as you can or to get implant supported dentures.

This blog is brought to you by Lafayette, LA Dentist Dr. John Theriot.