Dental implants
What does dental implants involve?
A dental implant replaces a missing tooth with a titanium post set into the jaw and topped with a custom crown. Treatment runs over three to six months — placement, healing, then the crown — across four or five visits. Costs start at $4,650 per tooth, covering the surgical and crown stages.
From $4,650 — per tooth, including surgery and crown
At a glance
- From
- $4,650 per tooth, covering surgery, abutment and crown
- Treatment time
- Three to six months from placement to final crown
- Visits
- Usually four or five, including planning and review
- Imaging
- 3D scan at the planning visit, referred locally in Richmond
- Health funds
- Major dental rebates often apply; your gap is quoted in writing
- Interim tooth
- A temporary tooth covers the gap while the post heals
Planning comes before anything surgical
The first visit is assessment, not surgery. We take a 3D scan to see how much bone height and width the site has, where the nerve and sinus sit, and whether the neighbouring teeth are sound enough to be worth building around. You also get the honest version of the alternatives, because an implant is not automatically the right answer for a gap.
Two things make an implant a poor first choice: uncontrolled gum disease, which will do to an implant what it did to the tooth, and smoking, which measurably lowers the odds of the post integrating. Neither rules you out permanently. Both are worth sorting out before you spend the money.
The three stages
Placement. Under local anaesthetic, the post goes into the bone through a small opening in the gum. It takes about an hour for a single tooth. Most people describe the days after as pressure rather than pain, managed with ordinary pain relief.
Healing. Bone grows onto the surface of the post over three to six months — longer in the upper jaw, shorter in the dense bone of the lower front. A temporary tooth covers the gap while you wait, so you are not walking around with a visible hole.
The crown. Once the post is solid, we scan the site, and the laboratory mills a crown matched to the shade and shape of the teeth beside it. It screws or cements onto the post, and we check the bite in fine detail, because an implant has no ligament to absorb a heavy contact the way a natural tooth does.
When bone has to be built first
A tooth that came out years ago takes bone with it as it goes. If the ridge has thinned too far, a graft adds width or height and needs its own healing period, which adds three to six months and to the cost. We will tell you at the planning visit whether that applies, rather than discovering it mid-surgery.
Implant, bridge or denture
A bridge is faster and cheaper but requires cutting down the healthy teeth either side, and it loads them for the rest of their lives. A denture is cheapest and least invasive, and the one most often left in a drawer. An implant costs the most up front, touches no other tooth, and preserves the bone in the gap. Which of those trade-offs you prefer is genuinely a matter of circumstance, and we quote more than one option for that reason.
Keeping it
An implant does not decay, but the gum around it can become inflamed and lose bone, and that is the main reason implants fail years later. It means a six-month clean, a floss or brush that gets under the crown, and a review x-ray from time to time. Maintenance is the cheapest part of the whole exercise.
Dental implants — common questions
- How long does the whole implant process take?
Three to six months for a straightforward single tooth: about an hour to place the post, then a healing period while bone grows onto it, then two visits to make and fit the crown. If the site needs a bone graft first, add another three to six months. Nothing about the timeline can be safely rushed — the healing is the part doing the work.
- Am I too old for a dental implant?
Age on its own is not a barrier; we have placed implants for patients in their eighties. What matters is bone, gum health, healing capacity and the medications you take — particularly some bone medications and blood thinners, which change the plan rather than cancel it. Being too young is more of an issue: a jaw still growing can leave an implant sitting out of line later.
- What if I do not have enough bone for an implant?
It is common, especially where a tooth has been missing for years, and it is usually solvable. A graft rebuilds width or height at the site, using granular material that your own bone replaces over several months. In the upper back jaw the sinus floor can be lifted to make room. Both add time and cost, and we identify the need from the 3D scan at the planning visit, not on the day of surgery.
- Is an implant better than a bridge?
It depends on the teeth either side of the gap. If they are healthy, an implant is usually the better long-term choice because it leaves them untouched and keeps bone in the gap. If those teeth already need crowns, a bridge does two jobs at once and finishes in weeks rather than months. We quote both so the comparison is in front of you in dollars as well as principle.