Bone Grafting Failed. What Now?

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Can you advise me? My dentist has done a lot of dental implants, so I was not too worried about my procedure. Unfortunately, things did not go as planned. When he went in to do the procedure he felt there wasn’t quite enough bone and didn’t want to place them when he wasn’t convinced they would succeed. I did appreciate that. We set up a bone grafting procedure. Then after that healed, he said it was time to try again.  Unfortunately, that didn’t work. The next time he went in to place the dental implant I again was shocked that when I woke up from the surgery I, once again, did not have a dental implant. He felt the bone grafting did not do what he’d hoped. He’s now suggesting a dental bridge. I’m three surgeries down with no tooth replacement. Should I give up and go with the dental bridge? Should I have gone to a dental implant specialist?

Sandy

Dear Sandy,

It sounds like your dentist is trying his best for you. He’s likely done quite a few dental implants but is new at the bone grafting procedure. I don’t know who your dentist is, but there are a couple of things your situation tells me about your dentist, both of which are good. The first is that he has integrity. After he did the bone grafting and then realized that it was not sufficient, it would have been very easy for him to place the dental implant and pretend everything was fine. You wouldn’t have known there was a problem until a year or more down the line in all likelihood and, then, there would be no way for anyone to know with certainty what went wrong. He would have saved himself the embarrassment of admitting his procedure failed.

Secondly, you have a dentist who is continuing to improve and learn new procedures. There are plenty of dentists who remain content with their current skills and do the bare minimum continuing education requirements. Your dentist is going above and beyond.

You asked if you’d have been better off with a dental implant specialist. Technically, there is not a recognized specialty in dental implants. However, there are some dentists who have more training than others. You would likely have had more success with someone with more practice with bone grafting.

If you would like to have a dental implant and are in good general health, you likely still can. However, you’ll probably have to go to someone else, like an oral surgeon, to have at least the bone grafting done. If you are not wanting to go through all of it again, then a dental bridge is a fine tooth replacement.

This blog is brought to you by Franklin, TN Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Christopher Weber, the only AACD accredited dentist in Franklin..