I don’t know what is going on with my husband’s dental implants, but the smell is making me sick. It’s so bad I’ve been having him sleep on the couch. He had the implants placed and right now has the temporary acrylic dentures. After a time of what the dentist calls osseointegration, he gets the permanent ones. The only thing I can think of is that the metal implants are reacting with his mouth and making a horrible smell. I think he needs to remove these and get the non-metal ones, but our dentists says these aren’t as proven, but he also doesn’t think the implants are the problem. Does that really matter when I can’t stand to be near him?
Rachel
Dear Rachel,
While there are non-metal dental implants made from zirconia, I do not think the metal implants are the problem. These traditional metal implants are made from titanium, which is inert. In fact, they don’t really have a smell at all. I recommend asking your husband’s dentist to let you see one of the fixtures and you can give it a sniff. If there is a bad smell, the first thing I would check for is an infection. That’s important to eliminate because an infection can lead to dental implant failure.
If there is not an infection, then the problem may be that your husband is having trouble getting everything around the temporary dentures cleaned out well. That means food and other bacteria are getting trapped, which would smell awful. Rather than have him sleep on the couch, may I recommend getting him a WaterPik? This will help him to get all the debris that is getting trapped, which in turn will remove the smell.
What you don’t want to ask is for your husband to switch implants. Unlike your dentist, I do not have anything against zirconia. While it is true they haven’t been around as long as titanium, they are a good option, especially for patients with rare titanium allergies. However, if your husband removed these implants, it would not be as simple as just putting in new ones. In the removal process, he would lose some bone structure. That missing structure would have to be built back up with an additional surgery known as bone grafting. Then, after that healed he would have another implant surgery. That is a lot of unnecessary surgery to ask your husband to go through.
This blog is brought to you by Libertyville, IL Dentist Dr. David Potts.