Beware of The Shiny Promises, High Costs Surrounding Dental Implants
Becky Carroll had such bad teeth that she smiled with her lips pressed closed. A few teeth were missing, others were stained or crooked.
Her dentists told her he could fix most of her teeth with root canals and crowns, but Carroll told CBS News she didn’t want to submit to a long list of dental work.
Then she saw a TV commercial advertising dental implants. The ad said she could have a “new smile in as little as one day” by surgically replacing her teeth instead of fixing them.
She saved what she could and borrowed the rest and in 2021, Carroll paid a ClearChoice clinic in New Jersey $31,000 to replace all her natural upper teeth.
What came next, she said, was “like a horror movie.”
In a lawsuit, Carroll alleges that the anesthesia wore off and she became conscious as her teeth were removed and titanium screws were twisted into her jawbone. After the surgery, her teeth were so misaligned that she was unable to chew naturally until she could afford corrective surgery two years later.
ClearChoice has denied Carroll’s claims and did not respond to CBS News’ request for comment. Unfortunately, it appears, her experience is not unusual.
An investigation by CBS and KFF Health News found patients across the country who had experienced painful complications with implant surgeries. Reporters uncovered multiple lawsuits alleging dentists at some implant clinics have “persuaded, pressured or forced patients to remove teeth unnecessarily.”
William Giannobile, dean of the Harvard School of Dental Medicine, told CBS: There are many cases in which teeth are being removed unnecessarily.
Implant surgery involves extracting a tooth and replacing it with a metal post that is screwed into the jaw and then affixed with a prosthetic tooth. Patients can have partial implants or have all of their teeth replaced. While implants don’t get cavities, studies show that patients with implants can be susceptible to infections in the gums and bone.
A single implant can cost a few thousand dollars, while full-arch implants can cost tens of thousands. Dentists are not required to learn how to place implants in dental school. Starting this year in Oregon, however, dentists are required to complete 56 hours of training before placing implants. The new requirement is the first in the U.S. and was adopted in response to dozens of investigations in Oregon into botched surgeries and implant failures.
“I was frankly stunned by how bad some of these dentists were practicing,” Stephen Prisby, executive director of the Oregon Board of Dentistry, told CBS.
“It was horrendous dentistry.”
Have you or someone you know received dental implants? How much did it cost and how did it turn out? Share your story with Voices for Affordable Health.