Well, MD, I'm just about to go to the dentist tomorrow to have the crown fitted on my implant and finish the process for good - FINALLY!

I decided to go down the more permanent path of the implant, since it looked the best and had the best outcome. I tried a sort of bridge that stuck to my two teeth beside the gap as an interim method and I broke it off, twice, in my sleep, so I'm glad I never set off down that to start with. I am also wearing a retainer with a false tooth in the meantime as well, and it's a pain. Looks fine, but I have to take it out to eat and clean.

I needed orthodontic work to align my teeth before I had the implant done. You might not need that. It was the most expensive part of the whole lot. The implant was particularly unpleasant as a procedure, but it wasn't really painful and I recovered very quickly. I got my implant done with a very experienced surgeon who pioneered the procedure in Australia some time ago and is known for being excellent. He was also the most expensive out of any I've heard of, but this was the one part I didn't want to be saving $$ on.

I have to have the crown fitted tomorrow, which is also not cheap! You need about 6 mths for the implant to heal before the crown can be attached. I had a lot longer due to slightly slower healing and a lack of effort on my part. But I'm so pleased my smile will be as close to perfect as I can hope for tomorrow, and it should stay that way for the rest of my life.

All up my costs were (before health fund rebates and spread over about four years - thank goodness for private health) about $7,500 for orthodontic work, $3,000 for the implant and $2,200 for the crown.

Mine was quite tricky though, since I have some genetic dental issues. GL!

ETA: Mischa, if you want to get the names where I got it done, let me know. The surgeon was just around the corner from you!