Posted by writeradmin
About six months ago I had to remove a dental implant because the bone never really filled in. When the dentist placed the implant, he perforated the sinus cavity a little. He said this was pretty normal and it only went in a few millimeters. It wasn’t a big problem until we had to remove the dental implant. I was sedated for the procedure but the dentist said that everything looked good and there was no infection so he didn’t need to give me any antibiotics. He said we could re-evaluate and try again in about a year. Then, a week later, I started having weird congestion, popping noises, and air blowing through the site. I went in and the dentist said everything looked fine. I was having trouble believing that and asked him to give me some antibiotics. He did, which seemed to clear up the problem. Should he have given them to me straight after the procedure? If so, should I be concerned that it won’t heal properly?
Katherine
Dear Katherine,
I don’t think you would have needed antibiotics from the beginning. It is always best to wait until there is a problem so that when you do need them, they’ll actually work. However, I am concerned about a couple of things. First, is the sinus perforation. Maybe for some dentists that’s pretty normal, but even when it does happen, a few millimeters is a huge amount in dentistry.
Second, is the failure of the bone to integrate with your dental implants. One thing you’d want to do before you let them try again is ask them what they’re going to do about the missing bone as well as how they’re going to protect you from another perforations. They should be doing diagnostic procedures to make sure the placement is perfect. There needs to be some three dimensional x-rays as well, like a CT scan, so they can avoid the same problem.
If they can’t tell you what they think went wrong and how they’ll avoid it next time, you may want to look for another dentist to do your dental implants. You did not say where the dental implant is, but if it is on a front tooth then you also want to make sure that the dentist is also a highly skilled cosmetic dentist. Matching a front tooth takes significant training and artistry.
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