If you are considering dental implants, their high success rate is one of the great sources of comfort. However, even a small possibility of risk from dental implants can make you nervous, so you rightly want to reduce your risk.
One way to do this is to work with an experienced implant dentist who can reduce your risk of surgical complications. Now a new study underscores the importance of this, showing that early implant failure is linked to surgical complications, not patient factors.
Surgical Complications Increase Risk of Early Failure
This study, conducted by scientists at the Mayo Clinic, looked at over 8500 dental implants placed from 2000 to 2014. These scientists wanted to learn what factors could lead to early implant failure, defined as failure during the first year after placement.
Reducing early implant failure is critical to improving dental implant results. About half of all dental implant failures occur in this first year after placement. Once an implant makes it past the first year, it has very good odds of lasting decades.
So researchers looked at several potential sources of risk for early implant failure, such as different surgical procedures used, surgical complications, and candidate factors. They found that surgical complications were far and away the biggest factor associated with early implant failure. If a patient experienced any surgical complication, they were nearly 16 times more likely to experience early implant failure. In comparison, medical conditions and neither single medications nor combinations of medications led to an increased risk of early implant failure. Some procedure variations led to statistically increased risks, but these were relatively minor, some barely significant.
Some of this is surprising. Smoking, for example, has been strongly associated with early implant failure in other studies, but here the slight risk increase was not shown to be statistically significant. Prior gum disease also did not have a significant impact on early implant failure.
Others are not surprising. This study showed, like others, that immediate placement and immediate loading were not associated with increased risks.
Experienced Dentists Can Reduce Complication Risk
If you are considering dental implants, this study should give you more reason to pick your implant dentist with care. Surgical complications are rare, but when they occur, the consequences can be serious, including early dental implant failure.
Often, failure risk can be linked to doctor-related factors. For example, an earlier study noted that implant dentists with limited experience had a failure rate about five times higher than experienced implant dentists. Other studies show inexperienced dentists may have an implant failure rate as high as 27%!
Are You Looking for Successful Implants in St. Louis?
At City Smiles of St. Louis, Dr. Chris Hill wants to make sure every patient enjoys the benefits of successful dental implants. That is why he engages the help of experienced implant dentist Dr. Jorge Amorin. Dr. Amorin has 11 years of experience and has received training in a program focused specifically to the placement of dental implants. He is an amazing implant dentist and gives us the ability to offer our patients the highest level of care for all types of implant dentistry, including implant dentures.
To learn more about the benefits of working with highly trained and experienced implant dentists in St. Louis, please call (314) 678-7876 today for an appointment at City Smiles. We can schedule your appointment at our office downtown or in Clayton, MO.
