My dental implant fell out!

My dental implant fell out is something we hear from time to time from a patient after we put in a dental implant. Almost always that is not exactly the case.

My dental implant fell out!

Typically when a patient calls to tell us this, something other than the dental implant falling out is what is actually going on. The first thing we really want to see is a photo of whatever it is that came out. In order of things that I have personally seen patients call and say, “My dental implant fell out!” are

• The healing abutment is without question the number one thing that patients call about when saying “My dental implant fell out!”
• The rest of these are much less common but the abutment screw is one we have had patients call about.
• Patients also occasionally call when a blood clot or our perio pack fall out.
• Finally, probably the least common thing patients call about is the actual dental implant falling out.

The healing abutment is what the patient is calling and saying my dental implant fell out

This is common. I don’t know exact percentage but I would guess around 5% for me. This occurs for several reasons and we can limit the percentage by tightening with our torque wrench. I personally do not use a torque wrench for this but many do. Another reason this occurs is the healing abutment is not fully down all the way because it is tight against bone or tissue. Eventually as the healing process begins the bone and tissue change and the healing abutment loosens.

Healing abutments are the most common thing to fall out. Their size and shape varies from company to company but most look fairly similar to these two.

The prosthetic screw is what they mistake for the dental implant.

This does not happen often because the the whole abutment would come out as well but in some cases it is possible for just this to come out. The prosthetic screw attaches the abutment to the dental implant, I know that is probably too technical, sorry! Anyway, here is a picture of a prosthetic screw looks like. They are all very similar and very small.

Prosthetic screw not a dental implant

The loss of the perio pack is what we sometimes see patients calling in about and saying my dental implant fell out.

This basically looks like a bloody clot. There are different versions of perio packs and they look different. I’m not going to show this cause they look like a bloody ball of slime.

My dental implant fell out – yes it really is the dental implant!

If this happens it is a real bummer! This does happen but it is rare. I have seen plenty of failures but it is unusual that a dental implant actually falls out and the patient brings it back. I have only seen it once (well it actually happened twice on the same individual). We made him a dental bridge!

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