Avoid Failed Dental Implants

By Richard Hughes, DDS, FACS

Dental implants are usually very successful, and people that have them are happy they went through the process. However, there are a small number of people that are not so happy due to implant failure. So what are some of the things that make dental implants fail? Excessive bite force, infection and smoking are three that your dentist can address.

There are some issues that the patient and their physician have to address and discuss with the implant dentist. Some people are taking medications on a long term basis that may have an adverse effect on bone which directly affects the success of the dental implants.

Some of the medications are, warfarin, heparin, cyclosporine, corticosteroids, thyroid hormone synthetic retinoids (vitamin A), loop diuretics, aromatase inhibitors, methotrexate, antiepileptics, proton pump inhibitors (Nexium and others), antidepressants, antiparkinsons, narcotic pain killers, antiretrovirals, bisphosphonates (Fosamax, Boniva etc.), imatinib (Gleevac), ifosfamide, and thiazolidinediones (Avandia).

By virtue of the fact that people have certain conditions (cancers and leukemia) and are taking the related medication, may exclude them from dental implant treatment.

There are other things to consider that adversely affect bone such as low vitamin D-2 and D-3, high LDL cholesterol and the malabsorption syndrome caused by gastric bypass surgery.

This article is not suggesting that people go off their medications, but the physician, patient and implant dentist have to communicate and be in agreement after talking about that subject.