Dental Implants Failure

Why do dental implants fail?

Dental implants are viable solution to missing or lost teeth. However, with the costs of dental implants being high, you just don’t want to know that implant can fail and implant restoration process can take you through the whole costly procedure once again only because proper methodologies were not used the first time around.

Unfortunately, dental implant failure is a common occurrence when treatment standards are compromised. Today’s advanced dental technologies have enabled dentists to consistently decrease the risk of dental implant failure; however, we still observe a 2% dental implant failure rate. Dental implant success is related to operator skill, quality and quantity of the bone available at the site, and the patient's oral hygiene but the most important factor is primary implant stability. Please be advised that this isn't to criticize any particular dentist.  Dealing with human body, it is difficult to guarantee a 100% success as many variables may contribute to achieve a specific outcome. This fact, however, does not suggest that you could settle for sub-standard work or low quality cheap dental implants. It simply means that dental implant could also fail because of some factors that were unfortunately not-known or not-discovered by the dentist at the time of placement.  

Types of Dental Implant Failure

Dental implants failure is simply an implant that fails to fully integrate; it could be placed into 4 different categories:

•             Infections – Dental implant infection is the number one reason that an implant is rejected by the body and the procedure is deemed a failure. Implant fixtures need precise fitting and improper fitting can result in infections. Patients’ oral hygiene could be a contributor to implant infection development. In most cases, medication alone is not enough to control and treat the infection. Instead, the dentist will often need to remove the implant and do the procedure again after cleaning the infection out.

•             Loose implants – Loose dental implants could be a result of: substandard fixtures, premature placements, lack of solid bone support…, to name a few. In most cases the implant is considered a failure.

•             Nerve impairment – Inadequate imaging technologies such as 2D imaging can result in placement of fixtures in positions where they irritate the nerves which will cause nerve reactions such as persistent numbness, tingling, or pain.

•             Puncture of other cavities – Again, lack of experience or inadequate imaging technologies have resulted in a number of dental implants being placed in sinus cavities, the mandibular lingual space, and even the nose. You can only imagine the pain and discomfort associated with such placements.

To learn more about implant failures, please read part2 of this article on causes of dental implant failure.

If you are suffering from dental implant failure, consider seeing an experienced Implant Specialist such as Dr. Elyassian. Even if you are in another state, when you add the costs and time involved in failed treatment, and add that to the cost of what you might spend in the future if your treatment isn't done correctly, a couple hundred dollars for your time/travel would certainly worth the assurance that your treatment will be done correctly this time. Many people fly in to Orange County, CA to see Dr Elyassian from other states, and his office helps with guest accommodations at local nearby hotels.

Dr. Elyassian has yet to see a case of dental implant failure that he has not been able to rescue. Please see the about Dr. Elyassian’s page and his awards page for more information about his reputation and credentials.