What Do You do when Dental Implant Fail?

When a dental implant fails it is very disgusted from both patient and dentist point of view. In this article we are discussing different types of dental implant failure and how to prevent those failures.

Dental implants have been around since 1950 and are commonly used to replace teeth. Dental implants in India have become a common practice of teeth replacement for the past few years or a decade.

There are about 10 to 15 major brands of dental Implants and more than 200 individual brands available worldwide

If you ask any experienced dental implant surgeon do all dental implants are successful? The answer will be NO.

When we look at the research done over decades in total about 30-40 years, we know that survival of the dental implants although probably is the highest among all dental procedures and has several other benefits too. The success rate of dental implants is high around 94 to 98 percent so if 100 implants are placed we can probably expect the failure of 2 to 6 percent.

There are two types of Dental Implant Failure

• Late Implant Failures:

These happen after many years of implant placement. The late failures of dental implants could be

• Cosmetic Failure:

Gums tend to shrink around the dental implant, maybe the bone began to lost around Dental implant & cosmetically the implant doesn’t look great

• Bone Loss or Peri-implantitis :

The simplest way to say is the gum disease around the implant which is actually quite rare in normal conditions.

• Early Failures:

This type of failure usually happens in the first 3 months. This is usually because of the biological problems where the body does not accept the implant. Early failure is sometimes called a “Rejection” of the Dental implant. The bone fails to grow into Dental Implant. In these cases the soft tissue will start to form around dental implant instead of bone and infection will commence around the implant and this will lead to rapid Bone Loss

So the most important thing to do after the placement of a dental implant is to review. After all implant surgery the implant must be reviewed in the first 3 months to ensure it must heal correctly.

If an implant does fail or is unable to form bone around it, the most important thing is its rapid removal to avoid more Bone Loss because if the implant is left more and more bone will be lost in order to place another implant.

Poor general health such as uncontrolled Diabetes, Severe osteoporosis, hyperparathyroidism, after radiation therapy or habits such as heavy smoking or poor oral hygiene reduces the survival rate of dental implants.

Patients must understand the risk factors for their particular case.

What should we do to prevent the Dental implant problem?

To prevent Dental Implant disease there are two categories

• Dentist Controlled:

• The Design of the crown or bridge: it is actually the critical parameter in determining the long term success and failure of dental implants. The crown or bridge on top of the dental implant should be cleanable. They should have proper contact points and easy to clean so that food doesn’t pack in.
• Is the implant crown is screw retained or cement retained because there might be a possibility that cement might get lodged around dental implant and gum and may cause infection later.
• The type of abutment whether it is a titanium, zirconia, or hybrid of both.
• The implant position is very important in determining its success, maybe its too deep or too shallow or too far or near to adjacent tooth or implant or maybe we have the problem with the right amount of soft tissue around the implant, what we could see is the failure of dental implant
• The last thing which dentists can control is the implant system, whether it has internal or external hex connection, is it a bone or tissue level implant system, what kind of titanium surface it has.

Again it is very important that a surgeon is placing the implant is very experienced, The Brand of Dental Implant is very important, The lab which is making the prosthesis should have technicians trained in dental implant prosthesis fabrication and also the material of prosthesis determines the success and failure of Dental Implant and the duration it lasts.

• Patient-Controlled:

• General health: It is the most important factor in determining the longevity of dental implants. Certain conditions like Uncontrolled Diabetes, Hyperparathyroidism, Severe osteoporosis or other diseases in which there is resorption of bone occurs can be detrimental to existing implant and natural teeth. Other conditions such as patients undergone radiation therapy of jaw bone or patients on bisphosphonate therapy where bone remodeling capacity is lost can lead to early or late implant failures.
• Habits: Habits such as heavy smoking or consumption of chewing tobacco or beetle nut which exerts heavy forces on dental implant along with minimizing can lead to failure of dental implants
• Oral Hygiene: The mouth must be clean, there should not be any periodontal or gum disease around adjacent teeth or any way in the mouth
• Generalized cleaning, maintenance, and excellent oral hygiene especially if patients have undergone dental implants is mandatory for long term success of dental implants.

To know more about Dental Implants Treatment Contact Dantkriti Dentofacial Aesthetics and Implant Center, The Leading Dental Implant Clinic in Gurgaon.

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Implant_failure#Dental_implant_failure