Dental Implant Failure & Salvage – Arcadia, CA
Keeping Your Smile Complete & Whole
Dental implants are the “gold standard” of tooth replacement, so they hardly ever fail early. You can typically trust them to restore your smile for decades at a time. Still, “hardly ever” isn’t the same as never; the posts sometimes do cease to work sooner than they should. It’s for this reason that we offer dental implant failure and salvage at our Arcadia practice. To learn more about this treatment, please keep reading or book your consultation soon.
Why Do Dental Implants Fail?
It’s fair to say that dental implants fail for two potential reasons. The first is peri-implantitis, while the other is a rare (or unexpected) circumstance or factor.
All in all, most dental implant failures result from peri-implantitis – an infection of the gum tissue housing your post. Bacteria from this condition can inflame the gums and bone around an implant. In doing so, inflammation will erode your mouth tissues until your implant loosens and lacks support.
Aside from peri-implantitis, the other major cause of implant failure is a rare circumstance. Examples of the latter include:
- Physical trauma (i.e., a bodily injury or accident, etc.)
- Failed implant fusion (i.e., the implant and jaw didn’t fuse correctly)
- Medical issues that weaken the immune system (i.e., cancer, diabetes, etc.)
Symptoms of Failed Dental Implants
Since dental implants can fail at any time, you should watch out for relevant symptoms. There’s a chance your posts could stop working right after placement or years later. As for which signs to look for, the most common ones are:
- Difficulty Chewing – When it works properly, a dental implant won’t leave you struggling to chew food. Struggles with the latter task imply your implant has failed.
- Loose Implant Post – Though it sometimes points to problems with the actual restoration, a loose dental implant can point to implant failure.
- Harsh Oral Pain – It isn’t normal to suffer severe pain right after implant placement. Should you develop such an ache, your post could be failing.
How Dental Implant Salvage Works
Should you experience (or suspect) implant failure, please visit us as soon as possible. We can address the issue easily (and relatively inexpensively) at our office. More specifically, Dr. Canzoneri will salvage your implant post and ensure your restored smile remains healthy and strong.
Say that you’ve experienced peri-implantitis, for instance. Our team may not need to remove the implant from your mouth to help. We could instead perform other procedures to address your infection, ranging from gum cleaning to scaling and root planing. Your implant would then stabilize and resume its proper functions.
If your post fails from poor fusion or facial trauma, we’ll have to remove it. We’d then set or place a new one after your mouth sufficiently heals.