Can a Dental Implant Fail?

Posted on: 26 November 2019

Dental implants are one of the healthiest ways to permanently restore broken or missing adult teeth. Typically, dental implants should last you your entire lifetime as long as you care for them properly. While it is rare, however, some dental implants can fail. The following are some things you should know about a dental implant failure:

Can Your Body Reject a Dental Implant?

One thing to know is that the failure is not a result of your body rejecting the implant. Because a dental implant is not another body part, it cannot reject it due to the lack of antibody-antigen responses like in an organ transplant.

What Is Osseointegration?

Osseointegration is a medical way of saying the tooth implant is loose or fell out of the mouth. This can happen over several months after you have the implant placed in the jaw bone. Osseointegration can happen if the jaw bone does not fuse correctly or completely with the implant. It can also happen if the implant is not in the correct position or is overloaded. If you have poor bone density, damage to the tissue around the implant, or have sudden trauma to the area, you can also lose an implant from osseointegration.

What Is Peri-Implantitis?

Another possible reason for dental implant failure is peri-implantitis. This is an infection that forms in the gums and around the implant. The infection typically occurs when you have poor dental hygiene after your dental implant procedure. This infection can not only result in the loss of the implant but can also cause even more loss of bone.

Can Nerve and Tissue Damage Cause Implant Loss?

If a dental implant is placed close to a nerve, you may have constant tingling, numbness or pain in different areas of your mouth. This includes the gums, cheeks, lips, and chin. This nerve damage can be temporary or permanent. To get to the bottom of the nerve damage, the implant has to come out and either be replaced or left empty.

What Signs Should You Look For?

There are many issues that can lead to the failure of a dental implant. The general signs of problems are constant discomfort or pain around the implants. Swollen and inflamed gums are also another symptom. If your implant is loose, chances are it will fail.

To prevent dental implant failure, be sure to care for them properly with healthy oral hygiene just as you would for natural teeth.

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About Marcel and the Dentist

Hi, my name is Marcel. Welcome to my site! I started it to help others learn about children's dentistry. Most of us don't remember dentist trips from our early childhood. Maybe we didn't even really care about our teeth until we started losing baby teeth. In my case, I became interested in children's dentistry as a young father. When my kids were young, I was a student, and our insurance did not cover visits to the dentist. Although my wife and I tried to teach our kids good hygiene on our own, it was difficult. When we we finally able to take them to the dentist, my little girls were scared and didn't know what was going on. Luckily, they appreciate the dentist now that they are older, but their first experiences helped teach me more about the importance of children's dentistry. Hopefully you can learn from my experiences!

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