We receive lots of questions about dental implants - what are they, how much do they cost, and will they work for me? The answer to most of these questions depends upon the individual patient, but there are some basic facts that hold true.

An implant is a titanium post placed through the gums and fused into the patient's bone. The restoration - or "tooth" - is then placed on that post. Upon completion, an implant looks, feels, and otherwise acts almost entirely like a natural tooth. This is why dental implants are usually the best option to replace missing teeth.

And placing dental implants is now taught in dental schools across the country and is generally considered the standard of care today. Even so, most dental insurance plans exclude dental implants, and will instead only cover less expensive treatment options like bridges or dentures. So if you have dental insurance and are concerned about coverage for an implant, a simple predetermination will answer the question of whether you have any insurance coverage.

Whether dental implants will work for you can only be determined after a careful examination. Your bone density and the health of surrounding tissue will ultimately determine if an implant is an option for you. But if it is, there is no better way to replace missing or damaged teeth.

Dr. Zettler is an experienced and careful implant dentist. And in order to continue providing the most recent advances in implant dentistry, Dr. Zettler has pursued the Surgical Program at the Misch International Implant Institute in California. More information on the Misch Institute is available here: www.misch.com/institute.html

We are often asked "do you take my insurance?" The short answer is "yes, we probably do." But there is often more to this question. As with any service, the patient is responsible for the entire fee. We then help the patient obtain whatever insurance coverage they have to help pay the fee. But how much coverage a patient has is influenced by many factors.

The most important factor is the contract between the employer and the insurance company. This is where the employer chooses how much coverage to provide its employees. And there are many options available to an employer - literally hundreds of different dental plans - and each plan is a private contract between the employer and the insurance company.

The next most influential factor is usually whether a dentist is "in-network" or "out-of-network" with an insurance company. At Cherrywood Dental Care, we are in-network with some companies and out-of-network with others, and although we have patients with in-network benefits, we also have many patients with out-of-network benefits. But this does not mean that our patients have no way of knowing how much coverage they may have. We are very experienced in addressing insurance issues. We can sometimes estimate a patient's coverage based upon our experience with similar cases, or we can contact the insurance company and obtain a "predetermination," which simply means that the insurance company will examine the patient's contract and tell us how much coverage is available.

We want our patients to be well-informed and comfortable with the decisions they make about their dental care. So we make certain that our patients always know our fees ahead of time, and always give their informed consent before incurring any costs. Please feel free to ask us any questions you have about your insurance coverage at Cherrywood Dental Care.