Theriot Family Dental

Dentist Pulled Out My Implant

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I had a dental implant placed, then the crown. A few days after the dental crown was placed the dental implant started to feel loose. My dentist suggested I come back in. He felt the crown was probably loose. When I went in, he couldn’t quite get the dental crown off so he got a special tool. Unfortunately, when he used it the entire implant came out with the implant crown. He says we can try again but I’m losing confidence in him. Am I being unfair? What do you recommend?

Stacey

Dear Stacey,

Dental Implant diagram

The level of incompetence your dentist demonstrated is beyond frustrating to me and completely unfair to you. When a dental crown is loose it doesn’t take a special tool to remove it. Obviously, it was the dental implant that was loose the whole time. Your dentist should have known this.

It sounds to me like he was hoping to just re-cement the crown and that would be enough. A loose crown is an easy fix. A loose dental implant is complicated and serious. He may have felt out of his depth.

There are a few reasons for a loose dental implant. The first is an infection. However, that is usually accompanied with pain and (sometimes) a fever.  You didn’t mention either of those, so I don’t think that will be your problem.

A second reason could be pre-mature loading of the dental crown. The waiting period between the implant placement and the dental crown placement has a two-fold purpose– to give time for healing and allow the bone to integrate with the implant, a process known as osseointegration. If the dental crown is placed before osseointegration takes place, there is too much weight and pressure on the crown and it will be pulled loose.

A third cause is insufficient bone support. This is a bit different from premature loading because it means there wasn’t enough bone to begin with.   Usually, that is because your dentist didn’t do adequate diagnostics ahead of time.

There are more reasons, including poor placement on the part of the dentist, but these give you an idea of all the things that can go wrong.

The solution for this is to have this dental implant re-done. That being said, I don’t think you can do it with this current dentist. You could, but in all likelihood, it will end up a disaster like the last one.  I want you to see a dentist who is also a fellow with the International Congress of Oral Implantologists. These are the top implantologists in the world. They can tell you why the implant failed and what the solution will be.

This blog is brought to you by Lafayette, LA Dentist Dr. John C. Theriot.