Sometimes dental implants can fail due to incorrect placement or poor cleaning. Insufficient or incorrect oral hygiene can also lead to gum disease, called peri-implantitis. This gum disease is more difficult to treat than gum disease with natural teeth, and the gum disease can infect the implant and cause loss of bone around it.
We do what we can to restore a failing implant, but if it is very compromised, or if the problem is that the implant was poorly placed, then we need to remove it and start over.
Where there is gum disease around an implant, deep cleaning may correct early problems. For more compromised implants, we can do a procedure similar to LANAP, called LAPIP (Laser Assisted Peri-Implantitis Procedure), in which we use a laser to kill the bacteria, remove infected tissue, and promote healing of the gum tissue. Where bone has been lost, we use the laser around the implants to help stimulate new bone growth.
Other than getting the implant correctly inserted in the first place, most implant complications can be prevented through proper oral hygiene and regular cleanings.
