The short answer to this is: yes. But lets look at what is involved in removing a dental implant and what consequences there might be to removing dental implants.
Dental implants can be removed if they are infected, or in the case of a patient who I saw today: because the placement of the dental implant is so bad, that its impossible to place a good quality tooth on the dental implant.
How are Dental implants removed.
The easiest way to remove a dental implant is to unscrew it.
This makes sense as most dental implants have a screw thread shape, so unscrewing the whole thing makes sense.
The issue can be that for dental implants to work, the bone needs to grow very tightly onto the surface of the dental implant itself.
This process is called osseointegration, and is the reason that dental implants can be used to provide such strong and reliable teeth. If a dental implant is very secure, then it can require a lot of force to remove the tooth.
There are special tools that have a “reverse thread”, these tools will bind into the dental implant (so we don’t necessarily need to know the implant brand), they secure themselves into position, allowing us to apply the unscrewing force to the dental implant.
What if this doesn’t work?
Occasionally, this doesn’t work, and we might need to do something a little more drastic.
It is possible to make a little cut in the gum, and remove the bone around the dental implant, loosening it, so that it can easily be removed.
This method has some drawbacks (it doesn’t sound as nice as the earlier method, right?)
It is much more involved, and therefore it can be more uncomfortable during the healing phase.
Often we place stitches after this kind of implant removal, so you may need an appointment to remove the stitches.
In addition to this, if you were thinking to have another dental implant placed in this position, removing bone is never a good idea.
This may result in you needing to have a bone graft to increase the bone again before your next dental implant.
Why are dental implants removed?
Over the years, we have removed dental implants because they have not fused to the bone, or the implant placement is not very good, and its impossible to get a nice looking end result with the dental implant in the original position.
Other reasons could be that the dental implant is infected, or in rare occasions, the dental implant itself has fractured.
In most cases, we can remove the dental implant with a minimal treatment, but there is always a risk that your dental implant could be more tricky, so we always plan for the worst!
