Dental Implants Fell Out the First Week
I had six dental implants placed. In less than a week, three of them have fallen out. I’m supposed to get two more when these heal, but I’m worried the rest of them won’t even make it for anything to heal. Is this typical? Also, should I have to pay for the ones that fell out?
Alexander
Dear Alexander,
No, you should not have to pay for the dental implants which fell out. It’s a fairly simply principle that something has to actually work for it to be considered functional. If you bought a refrigerator and found out that it didn’t keep food cold, then you would get a refund.
You have a right to be concerned about the other dental implants. The failure rate for dental implants is 5%. Your dentist appears to have a 50% failure rate. I don’t think I would trust him to do the final two or replace the ones you have already lost.
My first recommendation is that you get a second opinion on the remainder of your dental implants. It will be important to know whether or not you are going to lose those. This way you know what you need the next dentist to do.
There are a few reasons why dental implants can fail. Here are just a few of them.
- One of the most common is an infection at the implant site. However, that is usually accompanied by pain and/or fever, neither of which you’ve mentioned.
- Another reason is if the dentist did not do enough diagnostics in order to determine whether or not you have enough jaw bone in order to support the dental implants. If the bone support isn’t there, then the implants will fail.
- If a dentist places an implant incorrectly, it will fail.
There are other reasons, of course, but these are some of the most common. Once you know why your dental implants failed, then you’ll be able to be proactive on their replacement. You will need to make sure whatever dentist you chose next has significant post-doctoral training as well as a high success rate. You want a highly trained dentist.
This blog is brought to you by Cincinnati dentist Dr. Fred Peck.