Block Graft Repair of a Failed Implant

Dental implants can fail for several different reasons. In cases where the restoration and/or the abutment has failed, repair or replacement can be performed quickly if treated at the first indication of failure.

Failed Implant Site - Preop

Failure Basics

Replacement of a cracked, discolored, chipped rotated or loose restoration can be pretty straightforward.

Patients who have an implant tooth that is loose and involves the restoration only should nonetheless contact their implant dentist immediately to prevent excess looseness from creating a lateral force upon the implant device itself.

Delaying a checkup visit with the dentist could cause the implant device to fail. More details on the dynamics of failed implants can be reviewed here.

Case History Treatment Example

The implant pictures provided here represent a failure of a single upper arch implant. The block graft procedure is an advanced grafting procedure that is routinely used by fully tenured reconstructive dentists and periodontists. The treatment protocol is relatively the same for one implant site or several.

The first photo reflects an implant site with the failed implant removed. The cause of failure is directly related to the quality, density, width and height of the boney ridge.

Notice how the implant site width is too narrow for a standard implant. Dental implants vary in width and length and require a proportional amount of solid bone that surrounds the entire implant. If the amount is insufficient... osseointegration of the implant will be compromised, leading to an ultimate failure of any supplemental bone matrix graft product and the implant device.

Bone Block Placement

Patient Donates the Best Bone

One of the most efficient methods for assuring the healthiest graft success incorporates the use of tissue that best matches the patient's tissues. For this patient (see 2nd photo), rock solid bone was harvested from within the oral cavity (chin block or ramus block) and placed into the area of greatest need.

Titanium screws create a firm attachment to the maxilla. Bone matrix product is then packed into the reamining voids of the old implant and on both sides of the boney ridge. GTR (guided tissue regeneration) membrane is sutured onto the surgical site to facilitate the overall regenrative process for hard and soft tissue.

Pulverized Bone Matrix Supplemental Grafting

Supplemental Tissue Augmentation
GTR Membrane Placement

The blood supply and cellular characteristics of the "donated bone" (autogenous) best match the structures needing repair.

Understandably, the predictability factor exceeds all other grafting procedures that do not use autogenous bone.

Within a few months bone and soft tissue regeneration is complete. A new dental implant device, proportionally sized to the new width and depth of the boney ridge is placed with a new porcelain restoration and abutment.

Failed Implant Site - Preop

Expanded Block Graft Procedures

Chin Block and Ramus Block grafts enable talented surgeons, implantologists and bone grafting specialists to modify, augment and/or recreate jawbone structure for many patients who have been told grafting was not an option.

Long term denture wearers, patients with a mouthful of resorbed bone due to excessive tooth extractions, patients with generalized poor bone health and those who have experienced a bone graft failure already can derive benefits with bone block grafting that pulverized bone matrix alone cannot provide.

Large areas or spans of an upper or lower arch can be augmented with block grafts quickly and conveniently. Bone regeneration and eventual osseointegration outcomes are statistically superior to what can be achieved with non autogenous graft products.

Contact your local oral surgeons, implant periodontists, prosthodontists and reconstructive dentists to learn more about advanced bone block graft procedures.

Patient history information and photography provided by:
Edward Brant, DDS, MS
Periodontist
447 Lake Avenue
Long Island (St. James) NY, 11780
(631) 584-4395

Editorial Staff

implant dental placement procedures are technique sensitive and can incorporate different degrees of predictability for implant success dependent upon the skills and technologies used by the local dental implants surgeon periodontist specialist or local implant dentist diagnosis of occlusal function and restoration procedure

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