Va Dental- Am Ui

[Will]

does anyone know if the VA does implants or only false teeth. I was told I need to have teeth removed to reduce infection. I am IU and I know I am covered for dental but will they do false teeth or implants.

[jbasser]

They will usually go the least costliest route.

J

[roadking]

I am going through the same thing, it depends on how many teeth if it is just one than they will do the implant. This is what my dental dept. told me.

[john999]

I had to pay for my own implant because the VA dentist said it was not medicallly necessary. That is code for "cheap". I have two civilian dentists that both say the implant was necessary, unless I wanted to lose the oppposing tooth. Implants are pretty complicated. I am not sure I would want a general dentist at the VA to do one anyway. It is a job for an expert and there is lots of room to screw it up. The VA should pay for it. They always say dental health is so important to overall health, but then they don't want to pay for it. Certain teeth just have to be implanted because there are no other teeth on which to hand a bridge. The VA will pull a tooth anytime. They believe in dentures because they are cheap and that is the God they have before them...."spend as little on the vet as possible since they are going to die anyway". They show so little respect for veterans, and place dollars and cents far above our well being. The VA could not even make me a decent nightguard without five foulups first. My VAMC serves about 250,000 vets and yet the dentist office is tiny. You have to go through more inspection to get dental care at the VA than to get into the Whitehouse.

[Commander Bob]

Do you smoke, Will?

Edited December 19, 2008 by Commander Bob 92-93

[stillhere]

I had to pay for my own implant because the VA dentist said it was not medicallly necessary. That is code for "cheap". I have two civilian dentists that both say the implant was necessary, unless I wanted to lose the oppposing tooth. Implants are pretty complicated. I am not sure I would want a general dentist at the VA to do one anyway. It is a job for an expert and there is lots of room to screw it up. The VA should pay for it. They always say dental health is so important to overall health, but then they don't want to pay for it. Certain teeth just have to be implanted because there are no other teeth on which to hand a bridge. The VA will pull a tooth anytime. They believe in dentures because they are cheap and that is the God they have before them...."spend as little on the vet as possible since they are going to die anyway". They show so little respect for veterans, and place dollars and cents far above our well being. The VA could not even make me a decent nightguard without five foulups first. My VAMC serves about 250,000 vets and yet the dentist office is tiny. You have to go through more inspection to get dental care at the VA than to get into the Whitehouse.

John, VA wants to pull my four upper teeth on right side and said I will probablt need a temp bridge, one that I can take in and out. My outside dentist says to ahng on for a while longer but my teeth are realy loose on that side and one is actually broken below the gum line. Not sure at this point what I am going to do. May have the VA pull them at no charge and then deal with my outside dentist to fix them. I have to go in for a cleaning on the 29th of Dec.

But in my case when I asked the VA doc if we could just yank them all out and do dentures he said NO! Your other teeth are fine! So in my case they seem to want me to keep my teeth.

[john999]

I don't smoke and I have taken very good care of my teeth over the years. I had a root canal that went bad and got infected. The VA pulled the tooth, but when I asked about the implant they said "You will never miss that tooth". My dentist said I would lose the opposing tooth if I did not get an implant. I go to the dentist four times a year. The Army pulled two teeth when I was in that could have been fixed. I was on my way to Vietnam, so I guess they thought I might not need those teeth anyway.

If you have the cash you will probably get better care from a civilian dentist. I use the VA for cleanings and minor stuff. I got a filing or two, but when they denied the implant and told me that tall tale about my not needing it I begin to wonder if I even want to go back there. They do good x-rays.