I’ve had six dental implants and so far four have fallen out. Is this normal? Should I have to keep paying for them?
Lauren
Dear Lauren,
You are in serious need of a new implant dentist. The failure rate of dental implants should be between 2-5%. Your dentist has a failure rate of 67%. That is inexcusable. My guess is the remaining dental implants you have won’t last long either.
The first thing I want you to do is get with an experienced and qualified implant dentist and have them examine your dental implants in order to tell you where the problem lies. here.
Reasons for Dental Implant Failure
- Inadequate bone support. This can happen if your dentist did not do adequate diagnostics to ensure you had enough bone to begin. This should include 3-dimensional images, such as you’d get with a CT scan.
- Premature loading. This means putting stress on the implant by placing the dental crown before it has adequately integrated with the bone.
- Incorrect placement of the dental implant.
- Infection.
- Poorly fitting fixtures.
There are other reasons, but these are some of the most common. Once you know the reason for your multiple dental implant failure, you can make a plan for moving forward.
At this point, I would ask for a full refund. When I say that, I don’t just mean on the fixtures that have already fallen out. I mean all of them.
Unfortunately, you won’t be able to just get new implants. You will first need to have a bone grafting procedure. This is necessary to build back up the bone you lost when the implants failed.
Then, after that has had time to heal, you can move forward. Please make sure you see a dentist with extensive post-doctoral training in dental implants. This is an advanced procedure and not adequately taught in dental school.
Right now, it is one of the leading procedures leading to malpractice lawsuits.
This blog is brought to you by Hoffman Estates Dentist Dr. William Becker.