I am so frustrated. I lost a tooth and was hoping to get a dental implant. My dentist agreed and we went forward with the plans. After I woke up from the surgery, he told me there wasn’t really enough bone but he put the implant in anyway. He said it won’t last and we should probably take it out. Then, he wants me to get a dental bridge. I feel really frustrated about this. He did a procedure knowing it would fail. Now he wants me to do another procedure to reverse it. On top of that, I don’t even get the dental implant I’ve gone through all of this for. What can I do? Is there any chance of a dental implant?
Casey
Dear Casey,
I can’t believe your dentist thinks he can get away with this. One of the basic tenants about doing a procedure is that you have a reasonable expectation it will succeed. He did the procedure knowing it would fail. This is malpractice. Not only that, if he had done his due diligence with the preparatory diagnostics, he would have known that you did not have enough bone structure to retain the dental implant to begin with. Either he did not do the right diagnostics or he did and he intentionally gave you a procedure doomed to fail.
My recommendation is you tell him that he will pay for you to have this repaired by another dentist or you will see a lawyer and sue him for malpractice. However, he will need to pay for more than just a new dental implant procedure. On top of that, you will now need bone grafting done to build back up the bone lost when your failing implant will be removed.
That bone is imperative so that the dental implant can be secure. This is not a step that can be skipped.
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