Dentist Pulled Out My Implant

I am frustrated and confused. I had a dental implant placed. A few days later the crown was loose. I went in to see my dentist. He did an exam and took and x-ray. He told me that the dental implant itself looked fine and it was just a loose crown, which would be an easy fix. When he tried to remove the crown, it wouldn’t come off. That’s when he got a special tool. The problem is when he took off the crown, my implant came with it. Is this something that should have happened? He said we could put it back in but I’m puzzled how it could happen. How can I keep it from happening again?

Andrea

Dear Andrea,

I’m going to be quite blunt here. This is a serious case of gross incompetence. If a dental crown is loose, it does not take a special tool. Your dentist should have known that. The crown will come off without any problem. The obvious problem is that it was the dental implant which was loose. There are a lot of reasons why a dental implant can come loose. Here are just three of them.

• The first thing that comes to mind is that he could have placed the dental crown on before the implant had time to integrate with the surrounding bone. This would have put pressure on the implant causing it to come loose.
• Possibly you didn’t have enough bone to support the implant to begin with.
• An infection could also cause an implant to come loose. However, this is usually accompanied by fever and/or pain. You didn’t mention any of those.

While it is possible to get a new implant placed, replacing a dental implant is not as simple as just putting in a new one. You will need some bone grafting done first. Only then will you be able to get a new one. Because of my questions about your dentist’s competence level, I’m going to recommend that you see a different dentist to get your new tooth replacement. Make sure they have post-doctoral training in placing dental implants.

I’m sorry this happened to you.
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