Dental Implants that shouldn’t work

There are dental implants that should not be stable yet hold up well for years. The healing ability and individual response to the implant play a big role in the success or failure of a dental implant. However, this kind of work is not only unlikely to work long term, it is dangerous. The poor control this demonstrates is how patients end up with nerve damage from a doc who is not placing where he/she should.

Dental implants that aren’t in bone

Before CBCT there was really no way to know if the implant was in solid bone or laying just outside bone, other than to do an unneeded exploratory surgery. Today we are taking CBCT imaging much more and are running across well functioning long lasting implants that just should not be working. Yet they are!

I know I have a few cases of implants that are in the maxillary sinus, facial of bone, or into the nasal area that are working fine. For example this patient came to me with an implant not entirely in bone. After discussing the pros and cons of removing the implant vs restoring the implant the patient decided to restore. It has been in function for 4 years as of 2021 without issue.

Cases of dental implants outside of bone

Here is a case I have that I put on DT to ask what people would do. I believe it will be fine long term but time will tell.

Below are some photos I have seen online of implants that are holding up despite their poor placement. On a PA x-ray these implants would look fine, but when we look at the CBCT we see the truth. I should add that although some of these are currently working, they may not for very long.