I have mouth problems and have noticed that pretty much every dentist I have seen over the last few years has pushed dental implants. Except my current one who said I don’t have enough bone. So, I was interested to see a story in the Mail today which suggests the ‘replace teeth with implants’ approach may have been misguided:
The University of Toronto’s Faculty of Dentistry has even started a course preparing dentists for the approaching ‘tsunami of failing dental implants’. Indeed, some are asking if extracting decayed teeth to replace them with implants, rather than doing fillings on the tooth or the root, is advisable.
Recent evidence suggests that it may not be. Last year Dr Liran Levin, head of research at the School of Dental Medicine at the Israeli Institute of Technology in Haifa, looked at the survival rates of implants compared with decayed teeth that were treated. He found that while one implant in three fails within 15 years, just one natural tooth in five that dentists considered ‘questionable’ had failed after treatment. Even more surprising, as the Journal of the American Dental Association reported, only one natural tooth in three that dentists considered in an even worse state – ie, ‘hopeless’ – had failed within the timescale.
The reason, Dr Levin suggests, is that far from preventing bone loss, implants may promote it by triggering a serious infection, different from normal gum disease, which slowly destroys the bone holding the implant in place, causing it to loosen.
‘We’ve got a new man-made disease, peri-implantitis,’ he says.
Now I thank my current dentist for telling me the truth and not just pushing lucrative implants that wouldn’t have worked for me in all likelihood reading this.
You can read the story here:
I sheared a filled tooth off with an olive! It wasn’t supposed to have a stone in it – it did. The tooth, a back upper tooth, broke cleanly and smoothly off level with my gum. I was horrified. The dentist said it must be surgically removed (nothing left to grip and pull on). I am terrified of extraction and last and only time before I had fought the dentist off, I sill have two roots left in from that tooth.
I researched and found a dentist in Coventry who would sedate me. My normal Kenilworth dentist can’t do that. The combined cost of the sedated extraction and the pinned implant was to be over £3000. I just couldn’t afford it. So I put it off. At least 2 and a bit years later (could well be 3 years now, I forget) I still have the broken tooth. No issues with it at all. The 2 roots left in from the old extraction (also fully filled) have been there for more than 20 years with no trouble. The dentist has tried to tell me that my other teeth will grow to fill the spaces and cause issues. No sign of that happening. Moral of the tale? Don’t believe everything your dentist tells you. And watch out for all those annual Xrays, they never provide a thyroid guard.
Good story, thanks Sue. Just goes to show indeed. P resisted a few years ago too and he is fine. Methinks implants must be very lucrative!
Some people online seem to swear by colloidal silver if you are getting a tooth problem – ie use it as a mouthwash and keep in the mouth for 5 – 10 minutes before rinsing and it seems to kill off everything in sight and allow healing!
Yes, I think it is great. Sadly I reacted to it when I tried it tho, so not for me. Had a migraine with an hour!
Well done – brilliant and very pertinent – also having tooth issues and yep – they are all pushing the implants!
Oh, not good, Carolyn 🙁
So what is the better solution… and what do you do if you do get peri implantitis?
Aaand!!!! Who the hell is responsible for the next set of medical bills when you get the disease? (My situation right now)