Another Dental Implant Horror Story

Nancy lived in Colorado. Troubled with chronically inflamed dental implants and annoyed by food that always got impacted between her teeth and her gums, she sought help at the Mayo Clinic in Scottsdale, who referred her to Dr. Chal.

When she appeared in Dr. Chal's office, she was reluctant to smile, as this "before" photograph shows.

An examination showed that the implant fixtures (root forms) were improperly placed. The surgeon had placed them at the crest of the ridge of her jawbone on the upper. This may have seemed to him like a logical place, but in order to try to make the teeth work, the restorative dentist then had to move the teeth further to the front. In other words, the teeth were out of alignment with the implants, an unhealthy situation.

Food would get caught under her front teeth, in the place marked by the arrow in the photograph below. And you can see how the implants are not placed in line with the teeth where they should be.

Dr. Chal also noted an improper configuration in the two posterior dental implants that you see in the lower left-hand corner of this photograph. The crowns had come off the implants within a week of being placed. The reason? The implants were round rather than a hexagonal shape. Single teeth, which are subject to rotation, need to have anti-rotational shapes or they will come loose.

Unfortunately, these implants had to all be removed and new implants placed where they would be able to function properly.

Dentist's can avoid this improper placement of dental implants with proper planning. Dr. Chal studies every case carefully and first plans where the teeth should be placed for proper function and esthetics. Then he prepares a surgical guide for the surgeon placing the implants to avoid any error in the final result. Sadly, few implant dentists go through this trouble.

The photograph on the right shows Dr. Chal's result, with all the implants properly located. It's a solid result that will leave Nancy comfortable, functional, and with a beautiful smile for many years to come.

A closeup of her "after" smile shows how attractive it now looks.

Which explains why Nancy now smiles much more easily.