Hi, I’m Dr. Brett Langston. I’m a prosthodontist and owner of Dental Implant and Aesthetic Specialists here in Brookhaven, Georgia, and I’m here to help you watch your mouth.
Understanding Dental Implant Regrets
The topic I want to talk about today is dental implant regrets. This comes up occasionally when implants are not planned out properly, and they’re kind of rushed in and just put in a mouth without kind a long-term plan in sight. So one of the big things at our practice, and I would highly recommend anywhere else you go to get implant treatment, is a lot of planning and a lot of consideration on the front end because once you put an implant in the bone, that bone grows on and it’s integrated, they’re designed to last for life. So, if you have one in the wrong place and the wrong orientation in the wrong direction, removing that integrated implant is not an easy process because you have to remove a lot of bone. And in the process of removing that bone, you’re kind of weakening the jaw and you’re weakening the area for future implants.
Avoiding Implants in Growing Individuals
Some of the areas where we kind of see, I don’t want to say regret, but areas where I wish it had been planned better, are implants put in people that are too young. One of the big things that we have in our practice is you never want to put implants into somebody who’s still growing for men. I mean, we’re looking at 21 to 25 years old for women, you can probably in that 20 to 22 age range. And again, everybody’s different. And a lot of times when we have younger patients, we work really closely with our orthodontist colleagues or our orthopedic colleagues that can measure bone growth, measure growth plates, and kind of see when you’re done growing. And the problem is if you put an implant in somebody who’s still growing, you can place it in there, it looks great now that they’re 16, awesome, everything looks perfect, and then all of a sudden they hit 25, they hit 30, and their bone is receding, the tissue pulls back, and then all of a sudden you’re left with an implant that’s way down from their adjacent teeth, way down from the adjacent gum tissue. Sometimes, it can be an aesthetic nightmare to try to hide it.
Managing Misplaced Implants
Now, there’s never been a case where we’ve thrown our hands up and said there’s nothing we can do. So if you have an implant that was placed, maybe hastily, maybe not in the exact right location, or too early, definitely give us a call. See what we can do. We can try to work with you and figure out solutions, but it’s always better to prevent that on the front end. So the reason I always harp on planning and pre-treatment considerations is that once the implant is in place and it’s restored, a lot of times, you can’t really go back. If you have one placed that you’re not happy with, that either aesthetically or functionally is a problem, the solution to fix that is always a compromised solution.
Solutions for Implant Issues
If we do want to keep the implant, a lot of times, we can camouflage things with gum tissue-colored porcelain, or we’ve got different tips and tricks that we can do to kind of rebuild some things based on those implants. But the alternative would be removing the implant. From a medical health standpoint, we really don’t want to remove implants if it can be avoided because the loss of bone is so significant, and you’re running a risk of either jaw fracture or the potential of a site that’s not going to be as healthy and not as ideal for future implant placement.
The Importance of Proper Planning
I don’t want to instill fear around dental implants. They’re a phenomenal treatment modality. We do a lot of them in our practice. We’re really successful. And again, because we do a lot of planning ahead of time, we make sure we kind of look at the whole picture, look at the mouth, look at the adjacent teeth, plant it from start to finish. So when we’re done, you can smile, talk, eat, function, go to your daughter’s wedding, and smile at those pictures. You can go to church. You can sing in the choir without worrying about your teeth falling out. These are all things that are great advantages of implants. But again, you want to make sure you plan ’em out correctly. 10 hours of pre-planning is worth a lifetime of success on implants.
We’re Here to Help
If you have questions about getting dental implants or a dental implant that you might not be happy with, please come see us. Make an appointment. We’re here in Brookhaven, really not far from Atlanta. Atlanta Airport is the busiest airport in the world. There are plenty of hotels, so it’s very easy to come see us. We would love to see you and help you work through your problem. I’m Dr. Brett Langston. I’m here to help you watch your mouth.