Health Manipulation

A skilled dental surgeon will most likely perform a successful dental implant at a 99% rate. Factors affecting your body's response to the implant however, make it impossible to know if an implant will be successful, or not. Added to this, your body's natural healing process can affect whether an implant attaches firmly. If a dental implant does not attach firmly, or becomes loose, removal of the dental implant is necessary to repair the area.

If a dental implant becomes loose during the healing, contact your oral surgeon immediately. You can experience bone loss, bone damage, or both if you delay in having your loose implants treated. Once removed, the site of the implant will be cleaned, and then treated with a bone graft so it can heal properly. Once it heals, a new implant will be placed.

Why Do Dental Implants Become Loose?

Osseointegration, the process of bone tissue binding directly onto an implant is required for a dental implant to become successful. It can sometimes fail however, and this is the leading cause of loose implants. Without it, an implant cannot be firmly attached to the bone. In worse cases, implants become loose because of soft tissue forming in between bones and implants.

Osseointegration fails due to some contributing factors including bacterial contamination, bone grafting, infection, poor bone quality, and surgical trauma. Smoking also increases the risk of failed dental implants. Other times, there simply is no explanation why dental implants fail. This is taking into consideration the post-surgical healing process, and complications due to surgery.

How to Replace a Loose Dental Implant

While the only option to replace a loose dental implant is through an oral surgeon's help, there is only one recommended treatment that involves a four-step process.

1. The first step is to remove the loose implant. After extraction, the implant site must be cleaned, and all debris removed thoroughly.

2. The bone tissue from where the implant was removed has a tendency to recede like how it would naturally do if an original tooth was extracted. If it recedes, there will be no bone left enough to secure another implant. To prevent this, a bone graft will be done. It ensures that the new implant will have enough structure to attach itself onto.

3. It would take at least four months to have the implant checked again to see if the bone graft has properly grown. Within these months, healing is the goal, as well as, the proper bonding of the graft onto the bone where the new implant will be placed. If both are successful, you can be scheduled to have your new implant attached.

4. Still, if there is no adequate bone tissue after four months, another bone grafting procedure will be done. The right amount and quality of bone tissue is required for a successful implant to integrate itself.

A failed implant does not mean that you may experience more of it in the future. If your implants are starting to feel loose, seek the immediate care of your oral surgeon.