Dental Implant Restoration
Fort Worth, TX
 Dental implants are an excellent option for the 120 million Americans who are suffering with tooth loss. Permanent, safe, and highly attractive, these can restore your smile and your bite, giving you an improved appearance as well as a more comfortable smile. While complications with dental implants are extremely rare – less than 1% of dental implants are unsuccessful – they can occasionally have complications that need to be addressed immediately. When that happens, you can trust in us at Del Mar Dental to quickly and effectively treat these complications before they become worse.
Why Implants Can Fail and How to Restore Them
Dental implants can fail for a variety of reasons, including not taking proper care of them, exposing them to wide fluctuations in temperature, or being too aggressive in cleaning them. Sometimes the implant does not properly fuse to the bone, and other times the gums may start to recede away from the implant, exposing it to infection and increasing its risk of failure. Other times, the implant may become loose. Regardless of the reason for the implant not functioning properly, however, it’s vital to act quickly to improve your chances of preserving it.
If your implant isn’t fitting properly or loosens, do not attempt to fix it yourself. By doing so, you could permanently damage your jawbone. Instead, call us right away to take a look at it and assess it. If we discover that your implant is not fitting properly, we may have to surgically remove it. If you have significant bone loss or damage, we may then proceed with a bone graft to try to restore the missing bone. If the issue is severe, you may require several weeks of healing before we may begin to try to replace the implant.
If there is more extensive damage, we may have to entirely replace it. An implant consists of three parts: the implant, the abutment, and the crown. The implant is made of titanium and fuses to the bone. The abutment is created out of both titanium and zirconium and gives the crown a strong base for it to affix. Lastly, there is the crown and that is typically made out of porcelain. Depending on where the situation occurred is where we will begin our restoration.
If the implant portion failed, the entire implant does need to be removed. The same goes for the abutment; we may need to create a brand-new one. A defective crown can possibly just be exchanged or, if it’s just a slight chip or fracture, we may be able to repair it with bonding material. Once we craft a new component and your jaw is sufficiently healed, we can move forward with replacing the damaged components.
If you have an implant fail, please don’t panic or worry. With such a high general success rate, the risk of another implant not working or fitting properly is quite minimal. However, when you do have a damaged or ill-fitting implant, it’s vital that you call us at Del Mar Dental at (817) 710-2609 right away for an assessment of the implant to better understand the extent of the damage. The sooner we’re able to address it and treat it, the better your prognosis will be for saving the implant. |
