Our Blog

Don’t think that dental implants are not natural teeth so are not subject to dental problems.  A dental implant itself is artificial, but the jaw bone and gum tissue surrounding the implant is natural living tissue.  There are dental problems that will affect the artificial dental implant and problems that will affect the natural tissues.

Problems with the Dental Implant:

All the artificial components associated with a dental implant can wear and tear and may need to be replaced.  Crowns, bridges and dentures that attach to dental implants may need to be repaired or remade over time. Small internal screws that are used to attach crowns, bridges and dentures may need to be replaced if they break.  A dental implant itself tends to stay locked to the jaw bone once it is firmly attached after surgery to place it.  However, there are a small number of cases of dental implants that don’t integrate well with the jaw bone or the surgery site becomes infected.  These dental implants need to be removed and a new one placed after the jaw bone is cleaned and healing occurs.

Problems with the Surrounding Natural Tissue:

You still need to clean a dental implant as you would a natural tooth.  If the implant and its surrounding tissues are not cleaned properly, you can get a gum disease called peri-implantitis.  Like with normal gum disease affecting the gum and jaw bone that surround natural teeth, the gum and jaw bone surrounding an implant can become inflammed and break down in peri-implantitis.  Severe cases of peri-implantitis can result in failure of the implant similar to loss of the tooth in severe cases of normal gum disease.

Dental implants and the crowns, bridges and dentures that attach to them need to be brushed and flossed.  You need to see the dentist every 6 months to have your dental implants and their crowns, bridges and dentures checked and professionally cleaned.