What are the common risks associated with immediate dental implants?

Doctor's Answers 1

The risk for immediate implants is higher than for one placed in a delayed fashion.

The risk is, of course, delayed osseointegration of the immediate implant.

Osseointegration is a concept where the implants and the bone fuse together and this concept of Osseointegration is relevant not only for dental implants but also for hip implants or any kind of implants placed in the body.

I'm sure you have heard of people going for surgery for knee or hip replacements with metal implants. It’s the same concept, the titanium the implant has to heal and fuse with the bone for a strong foundation and that concept of osseointegration is critical for the overall long term success of the implant.

Now for immediate implant cases, typically the stability of the implant is not as good as compared to in a delayed case.

Therefore there is a higher chance that the implant could destabilize with biting, stress, and pressure.

As patients chew and eat, sometimes they can accidentally knock on implants and could disturb the healing.

This is especially so if the immediate implants come together with immediate temporary teeth, so any kind of pressure, any kind of knocking or load on immediate implants, could result in the failure of osseointegration of the implant and that would lead to loss of the implant.

So, there is a higher risk in immediate cases as compared to delayed cases, so case selection is very important.

To me, computer-guided planning is critical to make sure that virtually I have planned out the surgery in a 3D model so I know exactly where the implant is going to engage with the bone, so my level of predictability goes up so that I can mitigate this increased risk.

Similar Questions

How do I know when I need dental implants?

I do a lot of root canal treatment and to make a natural tooth look good, especially your front tooth, is quite easy. To make a front implant look good is extremely difficult. You’ll need multiple surgeries, not only to place the implants but also to graft the gums and all that. If the patient is quite young, meaning in their 20s or 30s, our skeleton keeps growing so the rest of the teeth will keep moving down but the implant doesn’t move. So when you hit your 50s you’ll have this cosmetic problem that’s very difficult to fix.

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Dr Jaclyn Toh

Dentist

Are there cases where people have to replace multiple teeth with implants?

Yes. We definitely have seen that happen. Sometimes people lose a lot of teeth because they have gum disease. Let’s say you get 8 teeth extracted at one time, then you have to put in implants. The thing about having multiple teeth is that if they are in a gap, you do not have to replace every single tooth lost with a dental implant. Sometimes we can have dental implant bridges, so say you lost like 8 teeth, you can actually have 5 posts. So 8 teeth hanging on the 5 posts. Those are called dental implant bridges.

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Human

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