6 Ways We Prevent Your Dental Implant From Failing

Dental implants are one of the most exciting advancements in dental technology in recent years. They are extremely durable and long-lasting. While implant success rates are high — 98 percent with proper care — complications and failure can still occur.

As your dental team, we give you the information you need to prevent implant loss. We also do everything we can on our end to prevent implant complications. Here are six things that we do prevent implant failure.

1. We won’t give you a dental implant unless you are a good candidate for one.

Not everyone is an ideal candidate for implants. Good general health, healthy gums and adequate bone tissue are required support the implant post. Suggesting an implant to a patient who lacks any of these key factors increases the chance of failure and in turn increases liability on our end. We also do not believe in giving dental implants to patients are still growing and developing because their jaw and facial bones have likely not finished forming until they are in their 20s. We also suggest our patients quit smoking before receiving a dental implant, as smoking is a risk factor that can be attributed to early implant loss. In fact, some studies show the implant loss rate for smokers is around 15.8 percent while the rate for non smokers is around 1.4 percent. That gap is quite significant! We also help our patients clear up any gum disease issues before an implant as it can also be a risk factor for implant failure.

2. We actually try to prevent the need for an implant in the first place.

While implants are a fantastic solution, if you are patient of our office, we will always try to stay on top of your dental problems as soon as they appear. We would much rather take care of a compromised tooth with fillings, crowns and root canals before we subject you to an involved and expensive dental implant.

3. We provide an optimal foundation for your implant. This may mean we need to do bone or gum grafts.

As mentioned above, you need enough solid jawbone tissue to stabilize your implant. If your bone tissue is not deep enough, wide enough or long enough, we will add bone mass through a graft. While this can add more time and cost to your treatment, we never take shortcuts here because it can make or break the success of your implant.

4. We don’t rush the osseointegration process.

After we place the post for your implant, osseointegration needs to occur. This is when the post and your jaw bone fuse together to become one. The proper completion of this process is absolutely crucial for implant success. We use painstaking attention to detail to place the implant properly and let it heal completely before placing the prosthetic.

5. We place your implant properly.

If an implant is placed too close to a nerve it can cause pain and tingling that can cause us to need to remove the implant. We avoid this by attention to detail in placement.

6. We protect you from peri-implantitis.

Peri-implantitis is when the tissue around your implant becomes inflamed and it can lead to bone loss and implant failure. It is one of the more common causes for implant failure. Studies have linked peri-implantitis to dentist error including excess cement in placement, gum tissue malformations and failure to remove ALL traces of plaque and bacteria from the implant site. We are very aware of these potential mistakes and avoid them at all costs.

Visit our office to talk with a member of our expert dental team about dental implants and the advantages they offer. Also, be sure to ask about our veneer special going on during June: When you buy three or more veneers you can get one for free!