Home / Failing Implant Revision
Second opinions
It hurts, it moves,
or it never felt right.
Implant problems arrive in a handful of recognizable forms, and they are not equally serious. Before anything is proposed, the job is to work out which one you actually have.
Why people come here
- Surgery and the finished teeth done by one dentist, under one roof
- Diplomate of the International Congress of Oral Implantologists
- Fellow of the Misch Institute — and faculty at its successor
- A written, itemized plan before anything is scheduled
Diagnosis first
Four different problems that feel identical.
A loose abutment screw feels like a loose implant. So does a debonded crown, and so does an implant that has genuinely lost bone. The first two are small fixes. The third is a real problem. Telling them apart takes an examination and imaging, not a phone call.
What we look for
- Screw loosening — common, often a bite problem underneath it
- Restoration failure — a debonded or fractured crown on a sound implant
- Peri-implant mucositis — inflamed tissue, bone still intact, reversible
- Peri-implantitis — inflammation with bone loss, which needs active treatment
- Malposition — integrated, healthy, and in a position no restoration can rescue
Only the last two are likely to mean removing anything, and even then the aim is to keep the site usable rather than to start from nothing.
The second opinion
What a revision consult involves.
History
What was placed, when, by whom, and what has changed since. Bring any records or imaging you have.
15 minExamination
Probing depths, mobility, the bite, and the restoration itself — separately from the implant.
20 minImaging
3D imaging shows bone levels around the implant that a flat x-ray flattens into guesswork.
Same visitA written answer
What the problem is, what it is not, and what the realistic options are — including leaving it alone.
Take homeNot every uncomfortable implant needs to come out. A fair number need a screw tightened, a bite adjusted, or the tissue around them treated and reviewed.Kennett Center for Advanced Dentistry
Questions
Revision, answered.
Will you criticise my previous dentist?
No. Implants fail for reasons that have nothing to do with the person who placed them — smoking, gum disease, grinding, a bite that changed. The useful conversation is about what to do now.
Can a removed implant be replaced?
Usually, but not on the same day. The site is cleaned and grafted, given a few months to rebuild, and a new implant is placed into healthy bone.
Do I have to start the whole arch again?
Rarely. Most revisions are local — one implant, one restoration, one area of tissue. Arch-wide redos are the exception, not the rule.
Start with an exam and a straight answer.
A consultation includes an examination, 3D imaging and a written, itemized plan. If implants are not the right treatment for you, Dr. Patellis will say so and tell you what is.