Live Life Team
Dental implants can make an enormous difference to your quality of life, restoring the full pleasure of eating and drinking and giving you back your smile. They are, however, very expensive compared to the alternatives, and many people struggle to afford them. If you’re in this situation, what’s the best way to resolve it?
Shop around
Before you do anything else, look around and compare the prices quoted by dentists in your area. Be wary of great-looking offers from practitioners who are not fully qualified and may not know what they’re doing, as you will have additional costs to bear if something goes wrong and be sure to do your research before you make a choice. You will find, however, that the prices offered by legitimate practitioners vary quite a bit. As more and more dentists start to offer this service, competition between them is making good deals easier to find.
Insurance
Even if you don’t see implants referenced on your dental or medical insurance documents, it’s worth inquiring in both cases, as they may be covered in special circumstances. What’s more, even if the implants themselves aren’t covered, you could be entitled to help with the cost of the crowns, reducing your overall bill.
Compensation
If your tooth loss happened because you were assaulted or as a result of an accident that wasn’t your fault, you might be able to get the cost of implants covered as part of a compensation claim. In this situation you will usually need to take action quite quickly in order to be allowed to proceed, and you will need to be able to prove what happened to you.
Dental tourism
There are cheaper places to get dental implants than the US. Increasingly, people are traveling south to countries like Colombia and Costa Rica for the procedure. This saves a lot of the cost of the implants themselves, but it adds other costs – travel, accommodation and additional living expenses – and you’ll have to check carefully to make sure that you’ll get good quality treatment, keeping the risk of complications to a minimum.
Dental instalment plans
Dentists understand that funding this kind of procedure isn’t easy and they also know that patients don’t like having to delay it, so they often offer low interest instalment plans to make it easier to pay for. Before you sign up for one of these you’ll need to be confident that you’ll have enough coming in to pay each instalment month by month, but although it means the cost is slightly higher overall, it’s a very practical option for many people. It’s particularly practical if your appearance is important to the job you do, so that implants actually help you to keep earning.
Conclusion
Even if you’re struggling to pay for your dental implants, don’t be tempted to get a cheaper deal by neglecting to pay for insurance. That insurance protects you from the risk of having to find a lot more money if something goes wrong. It means that you only have to worry about meeting the initial expense and then you can relax and enjoy your new teeth.
