Single Dental Implant Turkey

The quick explanation of a single tooth implant fits in one breath. Post in the bone, connector, crown. The more useful question is why some take twice as long as others. Nearly always, it comes down to which tooth went, and how.

Think about two people. One cracked a front tooth last month. The other lost a bottom molar a decade ago and never got round to replacing it. On paper they're the same, one gap each. In the chair they're hardly the same job, and the bills won't match either. That's the main reason two quotes for a single dental implant in Turkey can be so far apart.

So we'll skip the step-by-step tour and look at the real situations most single implants come from. There are four of them. (Missing several teeth? Start with our dental implant overview instead.)

"It was an old crown, and it just cracked": front tooth implants

We hear that sentence a lot. Often it's a front tooth that was root filled years ago and has finally split. Or a tooth that took a knock in a fall, back in school, and has been slowly dying ever since.

Here's something worth knowing before that tooth comes out. While it's still there, one option is still on the table: putting the implant straight into the empty socket at the same visit. Done in the right case, that keeps the gum and bone from collapsing and spares you a second operation. The right case is fussy, though. No infection, socket walls in one piece, and enough solid bone past the end of the root for the implant to bite into.

With top front teeth there's a snag. The bone on the lip side of the socket can be as thin as paper, and nobody can promise it'll survive until the tooth is actually out. If it breaks, we pack the socket with graft material, let it heal, and come back for the implant six to twelve weeks later.

The operation is rarely what makes front teeth tricky. It's the comparison. The crown goes right next to one of your own teeth. You'll compare them. So will everyone else. Colour, the see-through edge and the curve of the gum all need to line up with the neighbour. Thin gums add a worry. They can shrink back with time, or let a faint grey tint from the metal show. That can change the type of connector we use, or tip the balance towards a small gum graft. Even the temporary tooth matters here. It's shaped to coax the gum into the right outline, which is half of why a good front tooth implant before and after photo looks like a real tooth.

The molar that went years ago

Probably the commonest single implant we place. Also the one where the years in between have done the most damage.

Once a bottom molar has gone, the bone where it stood starts to thin. The teeth either side tip into the space. The top tooth that used to bite on it has nothing to stop it, so bit by bit it creeps down. You won't notice any of this. It doesn't hurt and you can't see it, so people leave these gaps for ages.

The scan shows the lot. With a bottom molar, the first thing we check is whether the bone is wide enough. Too narrow, and it'll need grafting. There's also a nerve running under these teeth that gives feeling to your lip and chin, so the implant can only be so long. The bit people don't expect is the gap. If the teeth beside it have leaned in, a full-width molar may not fit any more. You might end up with a slimmer crown, or we might polish a little off the upper tooth so it doesn't strike the new one first. Molars do the grinding, so here it's strength and width we're after, not looks.

Upper back teeth, and the sinus above them

Above the upper back teeth there's an air space, the maxillary sinus. After an extraction it tends to drop lower, and at the same time the bone beneath it wastes away. In time there may not be enough height left for a normal implant.

A sinus lift fixes that, and it comes in two sizes. Small top-up? The floor of the sinus can be tapped up from underneath, through the same hole the implant goes into, and the implant is usually placed the same day. Big shortfall? Then the surgeon makes a little window in the side of the jaw, lifts the lining of the sinus and fills the space below with graft. Whether the implant goes in then or a few months later hangs on how much bone was there to start with.

The scan tells us which one you need. That's why the sinus lift is priced separately in the table above rather than folded into every quote, and it's a thing to look for when you're comparing dental implant costs. Got a history of sinus trouble? Tell us about it early on. The surgeon will want to check it out first.

A tooth that was never there: missing lateral incisors

Some single implants replace a tooth that never grew. The upper lateral incisors, the narrower ones beside your two big front teeth, are among the commonest to be missing from birth. Lots of adults still have a baby tooth there, or a gap, or a little bonded bridge.

When can you have the implant? Not until your jaw has stopped growing. Natural teeth move as the jaw develops, but an implant doesn't, so one placed too young can end up sitting higher than its neighbours. Then there's room. These spaces are often tight, and the roots either side can lean in, so a short spell in braces to widen the gap may be needed first. If you've still got the baby tooth and it's healthy, there's nothing wrong with keeping it until it gives up.

What fills the gap while it heals

At the back, most people leave the space empty while the implant heals and don't give it much thought. At the front, almost nobody's willing to walk around with a gap. Luckily there are a few stopgaps.

Cheapest is a removable false tooth. It can sit on a small plate, sometimes called a flipper, or in a clear tray a bit like a retainer. Both are quick to make. They come out for cleaning and shouldn't sit hard on the wound. A step up from that is a false tooth bonded gently to the teeth either side. It stays in and feels more natural. Getting it off later takes a bit of care. Now and then, at the front, an implant is firm enough on the day for a temporary crown to be screwed straight onto it. We set it just short of touching the lower teeth, so it isn't biting while the bone grows on.

Which you get comes down to the tooth, the bone and how solid the implant feels once it's in. If you're coming to Istanbul, find out before you book which one you'll be leaving with.

About the implant crown

This is the bit you'll see and chew on every day, so two decisions are worth understanding up front.

First, what it's made of. At the back, zirconia is the usual pick because it's so tough. Up front, the job is copying the tooth next door, light and all, so the porcelain tends to be layered and coloured by hand. The material should be named on your quote. If it isn't, ask.

Second, how it's attached. Screw-retained crowns are held by a small screw, with the access hole filled in afterwards, and can be unscrewed later for cleaning or repair. Cemented crowns don't have that hole, which helps at the front. The catch is excess cement. Any left under the gum can cause inflammation, so it has to be removed carefully. Often the angle the implant ended up at decides this for us.

Single dental implant cost in Turkey

What changes the price? The brand of implant is one factor; our table goes from good-value systems up to premium. The crown material is another. Then there's whatever the scan throws up, a graft, say, or a sinus lift. A simple bottom premolar in solid bone is at the cheaper end. A front tooth with a fragile socket and a gum graft is at the other. Most UK and European patients find that even this end of the range costs less than at home. Comparing quotes? Check the implant, connector and crown are all in there. Some only price the screw.

Recovery, and the two visits

The first trip doesn't take long. Most people are at work again within a couple of days. Expect some soreness and swelling, and to chew on the other side for about a week. Bonding to the bone takes the implant three to six months. You spend that time at home and fly back for the permanent crown. When reading reviews, favour people writing after the second trip who've been chewing on the tooth for a while.

Do you actually need to replace a missing tooth?

Good question, and not every dentist raises it. A gap right at the back, with no tooth biting against it, sometimes does no harm at all. Leaving it alone is a reasonable choice there.

It's different further forward. Teeth beside a gap drift. The one above or below grows towards it. Slowly the bite changes. Leave it for years and fixing it gets bigger and dearer. That doesn't mean rushing. It means choosing, rather than letting time choose for you.

Implant vs bridge, when the teeth beside the gap aren't perfect

The FAQ above deals with the simple case: two healthy neighbours, so an implant means you don't have to touch them. Real mouths are often messier.

Suppose both neighbours already have big fillings, or crowns that need replacing anyway. Then a regular dental bridge uses teeth that need work regardless, it's done within days, and there's no surgery. It's worth thinking about seriously.

Harder is the case where one neighbour is fine and the other isn't. A bridge leans on both, so it's only as good as the weaker one. If that tooth fails, the bridge usually fails with it.

And sometimes a neighbour is its own worry, maybe a root filling nobody's fully happy with. Better to deal with it now than a year after your implant is done. A root canal may rescue it. Or it may turn out you've really got two teeth to replace, not one, which is where multiple dental implants come in, planned quite differently.