Cleft Palate: Are Dental Implants an Option for Me?

I’m a cleft palate with missing jawbone over the cleft. The cleft is currently covered by a bridge anchored to one tooth on each side of the cleft where the jawbone is missing. I once had a removable partial denture but hated it and could not live with it. So orthodontists moved teeth into place and then the dentist was able to make the bridge. Now my main anchor tooth for the bridge, right in the middle of my mouth, has had to have a root canal. It was tricky doing the root canal through the bridge, but they did it. That’s my current situation.My question is a deep worry I have about the future. Here we have a three-tooth bridge being supported by a tooth with a root canal. The situation is obviously precarious for that bridge, in the long term, since it’s all relying on a dead tooth that was just barely saved. Because I could not handle having dentures, I suggested to various dentists that when this bridge finally gives way I would go for dental implants on each side of the cleft and then have a bridge over the cleft built from the implanted tooth. Some dentists were concerned that this was not possible because implants don’t have the flexibility that real teeth do and that they could not handle the twisting and turning and uneven impact. And thus, over time, being part of a bridge over a cleft would weaken the implants and doom the project to failure.In short, I’m told, that when this root canal tooth goes, or if this bridge breaks, my middle tooth is done for because its been shaved down too much, since this is now the second bridge to be put on that tooth. Hence, we would tray a four-tooth bridge, and hope it would hold, presuming the remaining tooth could even handle any more shaving down for a third bridge. And then, if that failed, I’d be doomed to wear a partial, which is even worse than dentures, as far as I can see from my acquaintances.Is it really true that dental implants could not survive under the condition of being part of a bridge over a cleft? My self-esteem is so battered from my life as a cleft palate, which has been very hard, that I can’t see dealing with a partial-removable. Is there any implant technology upcoming that might be able to help me?