I had 5 implants placed, which have cost me quite a pretty penny. Since the restoration crowns have been placed, three of them of already fallen out. It hasn’t even been a week yet. I’ve already paid for this. Do I ask for a refund for the ones that have come out? He acted like it is normal for some to not “take” and said we can re-do them after a period of time. In the meantime, he wants to get me a removable partial denture for those until I can replace it. Will I have to worry about the others too?
Pamela
Dear Pamela,
I am both amused and horrified by your dentist’s vision of “normal”. For skilled implant dentists, the success rate is 98%. For dentist’s overall it is around 90%. In under a week, your dentist only has a 40% success rate and I wouldn’t feel too confident about the rest of them lasting either.
There are a few reasons that dental implant failure can happen.
- One of the leading reasons is an infection. However, you did not mention pain or fever, which is usually present.
- A second reason is poor bone density. It’s important to do adequate diagnostics in order to prevent this issue. This would include 3-dimensional x-rays, such as with a CT scan.
- Premature loading of the dental crown on the dental implant will cause failure. This is when a dentist places the crown before the bone has adequately integrated with the dental implant fixture.
- Sometimes dentists will purchase substandard implant fixtures. They do this to save money. Some implant fixtures made overseas of significantly less money, but they tend to fail because they are not made up to sufficient standards.
- Finally, poor placement on the part of the dentist can lead to failure.
My recommendation is that you don’t simply ask for a refund. Instead, I want you to have this dentist pay to have the implants placed properly, by the dentist of your choosing. This is because it will cost more to fix them than you originally paid to have them placed. As the implants fail or have to be removed, there is a gap left in the bone. This has to be filled and integrated in order for their to be adequate support for the new implants. This procedure is known as bone grafting.
When choosing the dentist to repair this, make sure they have advanced post-doctoral training in dental implants. Dental school will not be enough. Also, ask them their success rate.
This blog is brought to you by Portage, MI Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Susan Dennis.