Technologically advanced, beautiful, long-lasting dentistry

Half My Dental Implants Have Fallen Out

I received eight dental implants in total. I’ve already paid for five of them and will pay for three more and some dentures in a couple of months. However, they’ve already started falling out. Today, I lost the fourth one and it has only been a little over a week since they’ve been placed. I feel I should get a refund on these so they can be redone. I’m also wondering if I should be concerned over the remainder of them. Have you seen this happen before?

Laurie

Dear Laurie,

First, this is not normal and should not have happened. Your dentist has a 50% success rate for the dental implants he’s given you thus far. Most competent implants dentists have a 95% success rate and even that 5% of failure doesn’t happen for a year or more out. As for a refund. I would not just ask for a refund. Getting dental implants redone is not as simple as replacing the ones that failed. Instead, you have to first have a bone grafting procedure to build back up all the bone that was lost during the failure and removal of your dental implants. That costs even more than what you paid him originally. What I would like you to do instead is request him to pay to have these redone by an implant dentist of your choosing. My recommendation is you find someone with extensive post-doctoral training in dental implants as well as a high success rate so you can be certain you are getting competent work done.

Before moving forward with your replacements, I would like you to get a solid explanation for why they failed in the first place.

Common Reasons for Dental Implant Failure

Infection at the implant site.
Inadequate bone support. This is always the fault of the dentist. If he or she does adequate diagnostics, the problem would be realized and dealt with using a bone grafting procedure.
Cheap implant fixtures. Rather than pay high fees for implant fixtures held to rigid standards, some dentists will try to increase their profits by purchasing cheap fixtures.
Incorrect placement of the implant – Also completely the fault of the dentist.
Premature loading. This means the dentist placed the crowns or dentures too soon. The bone needs time to integrate with the implants in a process known as osseointegration.

This blog is brought to you by Douglass, AZ Dentist Dr. Tostado.