I’m a bit concerned about my post-operative care with my dental implant procedure. About six months later, he decided we needed to remove the implant because the bone was building around the area. He told me after the procedure that the dental implant perforated the sinus by only a few millimeters. He acted like that was no big deal and fairly common. He told me to take Flonase and not blow my nose and it will heal up on its own. I finally convinced him to give me an antibiotic a few weeks later because I felt like I was developing an infection. He wants to wait a year and then try again. However, I feel like I had to force him to care about the potential infection. Should I look for a different dentist? Was he wrong not to give me an antibiotic to begin with?
Sandra
Dear Sandra,
I’ll start with your last question. There isn’t anything wrong with not prescribing antibiotics when there isn’t a sign of infection. However, there are some things that do concern me. The first is the perforation of the sinus cavity by the dentist when he placed your dental implant. While it does happen, it isn’t “fairly common” as he expressed. It’s the depth that concerns me. A few millimeters is huge in dentistry. This makes me wonder if he did the right diagnostics and planning before your surgery.
A second thing that concerns me is the lack of bone integration. In a way you’re lucky because there was less chance of an infection developing, but the bone not integrating will lead to dental implant failure.
Before you re-do the dental implant procedure, I would want an answer for him as to why the perforation happened, how he plans on preventing it next time, as well as why he thinks the bone didn’t integrate. If he can’t answer those in a way that satisfies you and gives you confidence, then it is definitely time to find another dentist for your procedure.
I don’t know if he mentioned this. He should have. Once your implant was removed, especially for lack of integration, you will need a bone grafting procedure before the implant surgery. This will build back up the bone to ensure you have the right amount to retain the implants.
Best of luck to you. Don’t hesitate to find a better implant dentist if he can’t answer those questions satisfactorily.
This blog is brought to you by Libertyville Dentist Dr. David Potts.