Q: I had a bone graft performed on tooth #18 back in April 2011. An implant was performed in January of this year. Within 3 weeks, the implant loosened and came out. It was replaced in March with a larger diameter implant (same length). Is this common? What would cause this? This was done by a well-known Periodontist here in the Boston area.
A: Implants can fail for no reason at all even though the success rate is over 90%. There are many factors that can possibly cause the loss of an implant. Risk factors include smoking, diabetes, poor bone quality, poor occlusion (bite), a compromised medical condition, trauma and a number of other more rare events.
The placement of the wider diameter implant is the correct approach and hopefully will lead to an improved outcome.
