Should My Dentist Have Told Me About My Gum Disease Before Giving Me Implants?

I’m wondering if my dentist is at fault about my dental implant failure and I can get my money back? I got three dental implants. It was a lot of work and money. They failed in just a few months. My dentist said that happens sometimes and they don’t know why. He asked me if I wanted to do it again. I told him I needed to think about it. I went to another dentist to see if he could tell what went wrong, because my dentist never really checked anything. Apparently, I had gum disease. Pretty bad gum disease. This dentist thinks that’s why it failed. If that’s true, shouldn’t my dentist have told me about the gum disease before giving me implants?

Ginny F. – Connecticut

Ginny,

I can’t believe what I’m hearing? You’re darn right this dentist should have told you about your gum disease. He’s responsible to tell you anything which can negatively impact your dental and medical health that he’s aware of. If your gum disease is as advanced as the other dentist says, there’s no way he couldn’t have known without being grossly incompetent.

And, yes, gum disease would definitely be a cause of dental implant failure. In fact, if you have gum disease you can’t have dental implants. They’re contraindicative of one another. Getting a refund shouldn’t be a problem.

That still leaves you with the problem of restoring your teeth. Your first priority is to treat your gum disease. If not, just like the implants fell out, your natural teeth are likely to fall out as well. Once that is under control, you may want to seriously consider getting implants again— from a different dentist of course. It really is the best tooth replacement.

In the meantime, you’ll need something so you don’t just have a group of missing teeth. You could have removable partial dentures placed. Get the ones with holes in them for your natural teeth. That will put less strain on the remaining teeth you have while your gum disease is worked on.

I’m sorry your dentist failed you. Another dentist should help you set this to rights.

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