While it’s true that dental implant success rates are already quite high (up to 98% when performed by an experienced dentist), it would be nice if we could achieve a 100% success rate. You’ll have to excuse us our perfectionism on this. The good news is that as we continue to study dental implants and come up with ways to overcome individual complications, we do increase that success rate a little bit, and it’s only a matter of time until we achieve an essentially 100% success rate.
Consider the recent success that researchers have reported over implant peri-apical lesion (IPL).
What Is IPL?
IPL occurs when your dental implant seems to integrate with your bone just fine, but for some reason there’s a place at the tip of the implant where it isn’t making contact with the bone. This occurs in about 0.26% of dental implants, so it’s not a common complication, but in some cases it can lead to dental implant failure, so we want to know that we can stop it.
IPL is classified into two types. Inactive IPL isn’t necessarily a big concern. It’s probably just some scar tissue around the implant, and, as long as it’s not too large, the implant should actually be just fine. Active IPL, on the other hand, is a bacterial infection that grows and could lead to failure of the dental implant.
Treating IPL
Now a new case study shows that even active IPL can be successfully treated with the proper techniques. The case study focuses on a woman who was having pain and swelling around her dental implant. Her dentist identified an active IPL, which in this case had been caused by a small amount of root tip remaining from the infected tooth that had been extracted prior to implant placement. Surgery exposed the infection site and it was treated with an antibiotic cream. Then a small amount of tissue membrane was used to encourage bone growth. The area was covered up and allowed to heal for one month before the first follow-up.
The patient reported no pain or discomfort at the one-month follow-up. Follow-ups were performed out to five years after surgery, and the implant remained successful at the final follow-up, showing that even compromised dental implants can be encouraged to grow and succeed.
Dental Implant Techniques Continue to Improve
Although it’s an exciting time to be a dentist, it must be admitted that the ones who really benefit from these kinds of advances is you, the patient. As overcome each of these complications, we can move closer and closer to our dream of virtually 100% dental implant success.
These types of advances also mean that people who have been told in the past they can’t get dental implants may now be able to. If you’ve been told you can’t get dental implants in the past, maybe it’s time to get another opinion and see if new techniques how make you a candidate. To be evaluated for dental implants today, please call (02) 9686 7375 today for an appointment with Sydney implant dentist Dr. David Lee at My Hills Dentist.
