Dr. Gregg Weinstein, DDS • March 7, 2023
Dr Greg 00:06
We get this question all the time when patients come into consultations, and it’s a great question. How long do implants last? Many factors go into this. If they’re telling you the implant is going to definitely last forever, run the other way. There’s lots of different factors. Starting with, you know, the type of implant that’s placed. You want a well-proven implant brand of longevity and research to be placed in your mouth. And the method they use should all be guided in my opinion, using computer simulations before the patient even comes in, so the surgery is done ahead of time. We know that, if we guide it, it’s going to be placed in the exact correct position within a bone around it. If it’s not placed in the correct position, or there’s not enough bone around it, which can also still look okay and an x-ray, then the implant could fail or not last as long as it should. If the patient’s a healthy patient and you care for them just like your natural teeth, and you floss and you brush and you go for regular checkups, they can virtually last forever. You have to remember that they can’t decay and the only thing that’s going to affect an implant really is either bone loss around it or Periodontal Disease around it — which means the drawing back of the bone, an infection around it caused by infection of the gums. And that’s pretty much it. They can’t decay. Getting trauma can damage them. That’s why we like to use an implant that’s well known, that’s been around for a while. We know that their materials are strong, and virtually an implant can last forever if it’s cared for properly. But without proper care and without careful placement, such as guided computer placement, which is what we do here, there can be issues.
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