HOW LONG WILL AN IMPLANT LAST?

Dental implants are made from exceptionally strong materials and are engineered to withstand biting forces with a considerable margin of safety. While fracture of an implant seldom occurs, it is possible. Aside from such mechanical failures, all problems associated with dental implants relate to breakdown of the tissues surrounding the implants.

Three conditions can result in the loss of tissue around an implant. These are local conditions, systemic conditions, and overloading of the implant.

Local conditions: Bacteria can accumulate around a dental implant just as they can around a tooth. When bacteria are allowed to remain around a tooth, the gum becomes inflamed and there is eventual destruction of the bone supporting the tooth. We call this process periodontal disease.

Systemic conditions: Any systemic condition which prevents the body from repairing bone or other supporting tissues can result in the eventual Loss of support for the implant. Such conditions as osteoporosis, collagen diseases, uncontrolled diabetes, frequent use of tobacco, excessive alcohol or drug consumption, or any debilitating disease can prevent the body from repairing itself. When these conditions exist, the implant cannot be expected to survive as long as it otherwise would.

Overloading: Whenever any structure is overloaded, something will have to give. There are some loads which are within the physiologic tolerance of tissues supporting a tooth or an implant; the tissues not only manage these loads well but the loads actually stimulate the supporting bone to develop and be maintained around the tooth or implant. The teeth come together with varying degrees of force during such activities as eating, swallowing, and speech. These forces are usually physiologic and unless some abnormality exists, they will stimulate bone formation.

During periods of extreme muscular activity (such as lifting a heavy object) most people will clench their teeth together with considerable force. This force may exceed by several times the total accumulated force placed on the teeth during a meal. While these forces can be extremely heavy, they are usually exerted over a very short time period and therefore are not likely to cause damage. These forces can exceed physiologic loads in magnitude, but usually not in duration.

Emotional stress can cause severe damage not only to the tissues supporting the teeth, but also to the tissues supporting the implant. Emotional stress can result in clenching, grinding, or rubbing the teeth together with considerable force for long periods of time. Gum chewing can change what would otherwise be physiologic loads into damaging pathologic loads simply by increasing the amount of time during which these forces are being exerted from perhaps 40 minutes a day (the average time spent chewing food) to 12 to 14 hours per day. Emotional stress can also change body chemistry, causing a systemic condition, which leaves the supporting tissues more susceptible to breakdown.

What all of this means is that if the implant is kept clean, the body is kept healthy, and stress is controlled, then the implant should provide service for many years.

Obviously, all of these conditions are not met by all people all of the time. Nevertheless, our overall success rate for the devices we use is 95% at 5 years.