A brief guide to health issues that can negatively impact on dental implants

Modern dental care is somewhat remarkable.

We can now whiten teeth in 2 weeks, straighten teeth without metal braces and can even replace missing teeth permanently with the use of oral implants.

Affixed to your jaw, oral implants take between 3-6 months to fuse and then, our team affixes a prosthetic tooth or teeth on top of them. Thanks to our experience in cosmetics, these prosthetic teeth can be matched to look exactly like the surrounding teeth or, if you are having an entire set of teeth replaced, can be made to look as white as you wish.

Our team has fitted many dental implants and has extensive knowledge about the creation, fitting and aftercare that surround these nifty restoratives. We can accurately assess if you are suitable and can advise on ways to help maintain the implants for as long as possible too.

Sadly, there are some instances wherein, due to underlying health issues, a person may be unsuitable for having oral implants fitted. In these cases, we will usually aim to fit other restoratives, such as bridges or dentures instead.

So, what are some of the contraindicated disorders which can impact your suitability for having dental implants?

Osteoporosis

A degenerative bone disorder, osteoporosis can negatively impact on your ability to support dental implants.

However, assuming that your osteoporosis is well-controlled with medication, we may be able to offer you oral implants such as the mini implant, which requires no fusing but can only be used to support a single tooth at a time.

Should you need more than that to restore your smile, we will usually aim to fit dentures or fitted bridges instead.

Autoimmune conditions

It is not so much the conditions themselves, but more of a contraindication with the medication.

As you will need surgery to fit the implants and a healthy immune response is needed to begin fusing, this can rarely be achieved while taking immunosuppressants.

You can of course talk to your doctor about taking a break from the immunosuppressant medication, but this may not be wise if you have a severe illness. So, once again, it may be best to opt for prosthetics like dentures.

Diabetes

We want to be clear here; you can have implants fitted with diabetes. But it is unlikely to be successful if your diabetes is not controlled well.

Why? Because diabetes slows healing time, faster healing time is needed to ensure that your jaw fuses to the implants. So, if you want implants and have diabetes, talk to our team.

Cancers

Much like the issues with autoimmune disorders, it is more about the treatment of cancers than the disease itself which makes it tough to have implants fitted successfully. Of course, if you have bone cancer, then it is unwise to seek implants or any kind of prosthetic implants at all.

When you have recovered from cancer, and all treatments have stopped, you can then ask our team about having oral implants fitted.

DISCLAIMER

All treatment carries risks. Individual consultation is required with one of our practitioners to ensure that the treatment is right for you.

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