Full-mouth dental implants are built to last for decades, but every treatment carries some long-term risk, and patients deserve to hear about it before they commit. In a two-part video, Dr. Kendall covered the complications he sees most often years after someone gets The Ultimate Smile, the treatment some people call Teeth in 24 Hours, and what we do about each one.
Watch Part 1: Thin Tissue Around Implants
Complication #1: Gum Tissue That Isn't Thick Enough
The most common thing Dr. Kendall sees with full-mouth implants is simply that the gum tissue around some implants isn't very thick. It's especially common on the lower arch, and it depends on the person: whether you had teeth before treatment, how long they had been gone, and how your tissue is built.
That's not something we did wrong in surgery. It's nothing that you did wrong in your personal life after getting dental implants. Sometimes tissue is just not very thick.
Thin tissue on its own isn't a crisis. It matters when we start seeing negative changes around an implant, like a little bone loss, because thin tissue offers less protection against further change. That's why we watch it at your regular checkups.
The Fix: A Soft Tissue Graft
If the tissue is thin and we see changes around an implant, we may recommend a soft tissue transplant called a free gingival graft. (Here “free” means the tissue is moved from one spot to another, not anything about price.) We take a small piece of the thick, durable tissue from the roof of your mouth and patch it onto the implants where the tissue is thin, giving them a sturdier collar of gum.
According to Dr. Kendall, this is one of the most common things patients need five to ten years after full-mouth implants. Knowing that up front means it's a planned-for maintenance step, not a surprise.
Watch Part 2: Gum Disease and Who Maintains Your Implants
Complication #2: Gum Disease Around Implants
The second complication is gum disease. If you're not brushing into the gums and keeping them healthy, and you're not seeing a dentist regularly, the bone around your implants will start to deteriorate, just as it would around natural teeth. Implants can't get cavities, but the bone and tissue that hold them can get sick.
Caught early, it can be managed. At a maintenance visit your dental office can take the teeth off, clean thoroughly around each implant, and, if part of an implant has become exposed, smooth those threads so the area is easier to keep clean. That's why maintaining your implants is so important, in our office and in every office. Our post on whether implants require special care covers the routine that prevents most of these problems.
Ask Who Will Maintain Your Implants
Here's a question many patients never think to ask: if you go somewhere that only places implants and doesn't do cleanings, who is going to maintain them? Dr. Kendall recently saw someone on social media who had their implants done at a very cheap facility and was now searching for a dentist to clean and maintain them, and some offices wanted to charge $3,000 to do it.
It goes further than cost. If implants weren't placed in the proper position, the dentist who takes you on afterward inherits a case that is harder to keep healthy, which isn't fair to you or to them. His recommendation: do your homework before you get dental implants, and know who is going to maintain them afterward.
Make sure to do your homework before you get your dental implants done, and who's going to maintain them after, because it's so important.
Long-Term Care in Longview, Tyler, and Shreveport
At Texas Sedation Dental & Implant Center, we place implants and we maintain them, with six-month cleanings and checkups that catch thin tissue or gum changes early. Considering full-mouth implants, or want someone to check on the ones you have? Schedule your complimentary Ultimate Smile Assessment, a $500 value that includes a 3D CBCT scan.
