P/t Likes Choice, Too ...I wish they would pass the where it came from law... What will happen is the dentist will add $100 to domestic made crown and offer a choice. I like choice...
Actually we have contracted with my dentist for a fair heap more'n a hundred bucks extra per domestic crown to be fashioned by a lab in the same city as he, to where we drive 7-9 hours hrs each way for an appt, depending on if we stop or not for a sit-down meal along the way.
Dr, a pros, visits the lab, meets the techs, and knows the chief ceramist/lab owner personally; in fact, they've worked together more'n 20 years, collaborating closely on cases when needed, as they plan to do for
moi.
Am I rich?
Not by a long shot; could of used a full-mouth rehab over 20 years ago.
Why so fussy?
It's a saga, but bottom line is disappointing times in dental chairs here in the US, then far worse ones traveling abroad 4 yrs ago next month.
P/ts like choices, too. And if a tooth from somewhere other than where ordered is going into this mouth the gal would like details, please.
My perio/implantologist, also in that city, let me know the zr implants were made in Germany, and showed the boxes.
Thank you. I assumed Germany exercises quality control over the raw materials and didn't read 'em. No problems, but a few posts in certain threads leave me wishin' I'd salvaged them boxes as souvenirs.
Now a couple rhetorical Q's:
Aren't country-of-origin laws long in place in the US? Aren't the made-in labels on store items there by law?
And one
heartfelt Q:
CAN A DR PLACE A BODY PART AND KEEP WHAT IT IS MADE FROM AND FROM WHERE IT COMES A SECRET?
Personally, given contamination incidents in my lifetime--here in US, too, I'll grant you--I like knowing even where ingredients come from, the rare times this is broken down.
BioTemps from GL in CA
I don't mind telling y'all Dr ordered this p/t BioTemps from GL in California. They did cost, leastways compared to foreign imports, but yours truly was happy. We were paying for top-quality temporarization, biocompatible enough to guide soft-tissue healing, contoured enough to blueprint the permanent restoration.
It aint what I got.
Lingual anatomy is absent, the teeth feel like rhubarb stalks sprouting from the gum.
To make the facials look near normal, hey, even to place the bridges, Dr spent more chairside time than made either of us happy, and he knows better'n most Drs how to carve teeth.
Even so, over the next 3 weeks my body started rejecting the temps, canting and erupting the splints to where it deformed the maxilla, in places gin are receding.
Next appt Doc takes one look at my beaming smile and faster'n you can open your mouth says,
We'll need new impressions; we are having the BioTemps remade. Meanwhile he has at these ones, ripping off plastic, dividing teeth, reshaping, resplinting, welding the mandible like a Divided Great Wall on either side of the twisted lower incisors.
The bottom jaw jerks up and out, banging the lower R central against it's opposition, a hefty zr implant. A lighting bolt shoots down the natural tooth; fortunately its temp stays intact. Only later will we realize the tooth actually cracked.
For now, finishing up, Dr spatulas more acrylic on both sides of the mandible, angling opposing cusps to pressure the maxilla back into line with chewing forces. Without making new impressions he sends me home for 2 weeks, fingers crossed; mine are, too.
Before leaving, after expressing appreciation, I audibly reserve a p/t's right to refuse anything new going into this mouth.
Thankfully Dr knows tooth forces relative to bite pressures and has talented hands. Two weeks later yours truly, looking much like the former self, is back for the impressions.
Dr phoned personally yest to say the new BioTemps are in.
He is recontouring them a little, and will take extra time to put in some lingual anatomy. My appt is just over a week away, I am marking the days.
I express gratitude as I have seen enough of his lab skills to know he can contour teeth; also I itch to be rid of these ones.
But why, I am wondering,
is Dr having to do all this lab work? An old saw says,
hindsight is 20/20 vision. Not always.
I keep dismissing the nagging thought that
when Drs knowingly order imported teeth at least they and p/ts can be sure what country and lab the teeth come from. Because with dental restorations--although not normally a suspicious type--I find myself wondering of late
just how you can be sure of knowing what you'll get from a lab anymore in your own country, much less imported even direct, unless Dr somehow works with the tech as the resto is being made?
