I have had dental implants for many years. The dental implants I have snap in place to four implant posts. The locator male retention caps need to be replaced and I couldn’t believe my dentist wanted to charge me $25 a piece. It is a tiny part and to be honest, I cannot afford this expense right now. I found the exact piece for $20 for a pack of four online. But, the site won’t let me order them since I’m not a dental professional. Is there any way around this? Can I contact a different implant dentist to see if they’ll make the order for me since my dentist is being difficult? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
-Gloria in Kansas
Gloria,
This is somewhat poor taste on the part of your implant dentist since you have paid for your dental implant service there previously. Yes, it’s true that many dentists mark up parts like this because of the extremely high overhead they carry. However, for such a minor part, it seems silly that he won’t work with you.
You may be on the right track though. If you make a few phone calls and explain your situation, there is a good chance that someone will empathize with you. You may even be able to find a dental assistant that can make the order on your behalf since it is quite likely the staff that actually places the part orders for the practice. So, give that a try.
If it doesn’t work out, there are overseas sellers online that don’t require any kind of documentation. But, the caution with that option is that you need to know the exact type of part to get, since there are different varieties of strength. They very from soft to firm. Also, you will need to know exactly how to place them correctly into your denture. Each piece is designed for a different level of resistance, which means the costs vary because of that too.
Hopefully, you are able to get this figured out. Or maybe one more call to your original implant dentist will do the trick, reminding him of the amount of money you’ve already spent there.
This post is sponsored by Petaluma dentist Dr. Rick Lane.