If you've had the misfortune of having a tooth knocked out, now there's a better option for having it replaced.
Doctor D. J. Bickers of Charlottesville explains: "Someone comes in, say Mrs. Jones, and she's missing a tooth and I say, 'Here are your options. You can get a partial, you can do a bridge, or you can do an implant.' She chooses an implant because it's the best; it's the most expensive but the best. An oral surgeon places the implant in the bone, replacing the root of the tooth. You let it heal, then you come back to me and I make an impression, a negative image of this, in about 15 minutes. We send it to a lab, and 3 weeks later you've got a crown. With front teeth you can get an immediate replacement now. People bang a tooth and lose it, and in that very same day can get a replacement. And you can't get a cavity on titanium; bacteria can't hurt this stuff."
Doctor Bickers says the implants cost about a thousand dollars more than typical bridgework, and he adds that it's well worth it.
Dental Implant Technique 