Dental Implants Came Out in a Week

I had six dental implants placed and so far three have them have fallen out in less than a week. I paid for half of this procedure up front. Should I be expected to pay the second half if they’ve fallen out?

Benjamin

Dear Benjamin,

I am wondering, because of the number of dental implants, if you are getting implant-supported dentures. That is a great choice for replacing your teeth. Your dentist, however, leaves something to be desired. In general, the dental implant failure rate should be a maximum of 5%. Your dentist is at 50%.

In answer to your original question, though. No, you shouldn’t pay for dental implants that have failed. With that many dental implants failing, I would be concerned about the remainder of them as well. I would like you to see a skilled and experienced implant dentist. They will need to tell you why the implants failed.

Some Reasons for Dental Implant Failure

• Inadequate Bone Support. If this was the case, the dentist should have known that prior to the procedure by doing adequate diagnostic procedures. Then he could have planned for the complication with a bone grafting procedure.
• Infection. This is one of the major causes of tooth infection. However, I don’t think it is your issue. Normally, this is accompanied by pain and fever. You didn’t mention either of these.
• Incorrect placement of the implants.
• Premature loading. This is when the dentist places the implant crowns or the denture on the implants before they’ve had time to integrate with the bone.

There are other reasons as well, but this is a good general list. Once you know what the problem was, you’ll know how to proceed.

Finding Your Implant Dentist

This is an advanced procedure that isn’t really taught at dental school. It requires extensive post-doctoral training. For instance, Dr. Potts did a 3-year externship, which included surgery and bone grafting. This is the type of dentist you want, especially in your situation where you’ll need all three procedures.

Even if you had enough bone support to begin with, once your implants fell out, you no longer did. This is because there is a hole in your bone where the implant was. That has to be built back in order for your next set of dental implants to have a chance.

This blog is brought to you by Libertyville Dentist Dr. David Potts.