I had a dental implant bridge placed. I was told that it would be like having natural teeth. It feels wrong though. The teeth where the bridge is matches up with the other arch, but now the teeth on my other side don’t even touch anymore. Is this okay?
Carolyn
Dear Carolyn,
No, this is not okay. All of your teeth need to line up properly and occlude with each other. If your dentist does not fix this it can cause problems for you. First, you may start to have pain were the teeth are meeting before the opposite side. But, you can also develop TMJ disorder.
Unfortunately, there are not any extra-doctoral requirements for dentists when it comes to dental implants. What I would like you to do is see another implant dentist and have them look at the situation with your bridge. Make sure they have good implant qualifications. To get an idea of what you need, look at Dr. Pott’s bio and see what his implant training is. If they can tell what went wrong, he can help you get this fixed without having to pay for everything again.
Based on your description, there are two possibilities for what went wrong. Either the dental implants were incorrectly restored or the surgically placed in the wrong position. The more likely issue is that the surgery was done incorrectly. This is more of a risk when there is a separate dentist and surgeon during the implant procedure. Ideally, the dentist would also do the surgery, but not all dentists are qualified to do the surgical part. If you have to see an oral surgeon, make certain it is the dentist who determines the placement and not the surgeon.
This blog is brought to you by Libertyville Dentist Dr. David Potts.