I am in the process of spending an obsene amount of money getting my teeth fixed so thought it would be good to post a 'before' photo here for posterity.
The really discoloured one (top front right in this photo) is one that I damaged as a child (Note to parents: keep your children away from trampolines if you don't want to be forking over huge amounts of money to your dentist!) and has been gradually dying and becoming more discoloured over the years. I am getting a porcelain veneer put onto this one to make it appear whiter. The other option for this one was root canal surgery and colouring from inside but this would have been more intrusive and expensive and the dentist didn't think it was necessary given that this tooth really isn't giving me any trouble despite it being dead.
The one next to it is actually not a real tooth at all but a plastic falsie on a denture (you can just see one of the ugly metal wires from the denture in the left of the picture). I knocked the original tooth out in the same accident. This is where the real expense comes in as I am having this one replaced with a dental implant which is a porcelain tooth anchored in by a screw implanted in my upper jaw. I have already had the surgery to have the screw implanted (this was much more of a big deal than I realised and I had close to a week off work afterwards as it was so painful afterwards) and just went back to the dentist a few days okay to check that everything has healed up okay before moving onto the next stage. Later this week, I will go in again to get some impressions done (you know when they stick those horrible plates full of gunk into your mouth). These will be used to make a replica of my mouth which the technician will refer to in making my new teeth.
All up, this is costing almost AU$10,000.00! I decided to get it done after inheriting some money from my grandfather last year. I also figured that it wasn't going to get any cheaper if I waited and in the meantime, the denture (my 3rd or 4th in about 30 years) is damaging my other teeth and causing gum problems and was due for replacement anyway. The other problem with that if I had started showing any signs of bone density deterioration (had to have a bone scan done to check this), then I could never get it done. This is a real danger for me as osteoporosis is something that runs in the family. The signs of osteoporosis generally start showing around the same age as menopause (estimating this is about 5-10 years away for me).
I will post some 'after' shots once it is all finished. The dentist has also been taking plenty of photos which he said he would email me. Of course, he is quite gleeful about all this. What I am paying him will make quite a nice dent in his kids' private school fees!
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