First off, I'll give a bit of background info on myself: I'm 24 and my
teeth are generally very healthy (only 1 filling currently).  I had my
1st molar on the top left of my mouth filled when I was younger.
Somehow during this procedure the roots were damaged which ended up
causing a lot of pain.  Long story short, I had a root canal, but my
mother never took me back to get the tooth crowned so it sat filled for
a number of years.  It's something that I should have had taken care of
myself later, but that's hindsight.  Anyways, about 5 months ago the
tooth cracked and I had to have it extracted.

Now, naturally at this age my self esteem with a tooth missing has gone
down the tubes (it's not visible from the front, but it's still a
missing tooth).  My dentist recommended a fixed bridge to replace it,
but I absolutely hate the idea of virtually destroying two good teeth
to put in a replacement.  He seemed to brush off the implant option
without much discussion.

Having read online though, the implant option seems great to me.  Both
seem to be about the same cost (my dentist quoted $2100 for the bridge,
which seems to be right at or just under what an implant would cost),
and I'd get to keep from grinding my other teeth.

It's not nessessarily an indicator, but I did note that my dentist
could do the bridge himself whilst I'd have to go elsewhere to get the
implant done.  Not really accusing him of it, but I have wondered if
perhaps he might advocate the bridge more for this reason.

Basically, I'm just asking some advice regarding the situation.  I have
made up my mind to call a local dental surgeon tommorow and set up an
appointment to discuss the same thing, but figured it couldn't hurt to
get some extra opinions as well.

Thank you for any responses.

Mike

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