I had four dental implants placed. I just received the crowns and two of them have already fallen out just a day later. Dental implants aren’t cheap and I know my dentist is expecting the second half of his payment soon. I don’t feel I should have to pay for them if they fell out this quickly. He said they’d last years. Is this fixable? Should he re-do them?
Laurie
Dear Laurie,
There is something seriously wrong here. You’ve lost half your dental implants in one day. I feel fairly confident the others will not be far behind. You need to contact your dentist and let him know what is going on right away.
To answer your first question. No, you should not have to pay for these. It’s a pretty basic standard to expect your dental implants to stay in. While these can be re-done, you need to be certain your dentist can tell you why they failed before moving forward.
Reasons for Dental Implant Failure
You should know, that dental implants have 95% success rate, so what you’re experiencing is unusual. When dental implants do fail, here are some of the main reasons. Notice that most of them are a failure on the dentist’s part.
- Infection. This often results from poorly fitting implants.
- Subpar implants. Some dentists will cut costs by ordering cheap, overseas implant fixtures. These are rarely as well made as those that must adhere to the standards here in the states.
- Inadequate bone. Your dentist should do enough diagnostics at the beginning to ensure you have the necessary bone structure to retain the implants.
- Placing the dental crown prematurely. The waiting period between the surgery and crown placement isn’t just about healing. It’s also to make sure the bone has had adequate time to integrate with the implants and keep them secure. If your dentist puts the porcelain crowns on before that time, the load will be too much and will loosen the implant fixtures.
- Incorrect surgical placement of the implant.
Once you find out why this happened, you can have it re-done (at your dentist’s expense). Unfortunately, you will need to have an additional procedure done first to get your jaw in a position where it can accept implants again. You’ll need to have some bone grafting done. Then, once you’ve healed from that, you can start over.
This blog is brought to you by Duluth, GA Dentist Dr. David Marion.
