Implant Question

[Lola]

Hi there! I have a question for anyone who has implants since I know very little about them. It's not for me (i'm an extraction and braces girl myself!) but for a friend who has been putting off getting his teeth fixed for years. Story is as follows...
At age 14 he was hit in the face with a baseball bat and lost the front 4 teeth. (could be front 6..). He has a palate with teeth on it, but since he has had it since he was a child the teeth look much too small for his mouth. Also, the upper jaw above the teeth was shattered from the hit and, although due to heal, the dentist at the time said he would have to wait until he was 25 to see if it had knitted back together strong enough to get implants. (He is now 26) While he can't really afford to do it privately we have heard that one of the universities takes on difficult cases for cheap or free since it's good for their own research and learning. His main problem is that he thinks he will have to get the metal part in first and therefore be toothless for a month- Is this always the case?? I thought you could get temporary fake teeth to hide such gaps. Then again, I'm afraid he may have to go private for that type of cosmetic care...
Has anyone else here had the upper front teeth done, and if so how long did you have no teeth in the spaces for? I said to him it's only a short while out of his whole life, but that's easy for me to say I suppose...
Also, could you tell me roughly what is a ball park price for implants? And has anyone here had a similar situation in that the bone above their teeth was broken?

Thanks for your help!

Lola

[Luella]

Hi Lola! I would assume the palate with teeth on it you're referring to is what we call a flipper- kinda like a retainer with teeth on it. If he is wearing one now, then after the implants are placed the dentist he is seeing should be able to either adjust the one he is currently wearing so he can continue to wear it during the healing process, or they may have to make a new one for him to wear during the healing process. At my office, we charge $2250 per implant, plus whatever the dentist charges to make the crown. We are mid-cost in the area- some other places in Fort Worth are a few hunded cheaper, we've heard some offices in Dallas charge $3500 per implant- that's outrageous!!! If he is missing the front 4, he should be able to get by with 2 implants, the front 6, he'd likely need 3. The brand of implant my office uses is Straumann- www.straumann.com has a lot of patient information, and all of the implant systems are about the same so even if he ends up with a different brand, he'll still be informed. Our office also offers Care Credit- a credit system by Capitol One- that offers 0% financing so maybe that'll help him afford it, as most insurance companies don't pay for any of it. Let me know how it turns out for him!