ARE DENTAL IMPLANTS ALWAYS SAFE? WOMAN IN ITALY HAS SURGERY AFTER DENTAL IMPLANT LODGES IN HER SINUS

 

The science of dental implants is decades old.  The surgically implanted metal devices which hold a synthetic tooth have been a dental replacement mainstay for many years. 

But is it always safe? 

A woman in Brescia, Italy had to have her implant surgically removed after it relodged in her right sinus.  

She first presented with pain in her face.  After xrays were done, surgery was ordered to remove the dislodged metal piston that holds the tooth.

Although doctors do not know exactly why this happened, the fact that implants may migrate to places other than where they are meant to stay is nothing new.

In some cases, infection or just tissue or bone loss, can set the metal portion of the implant, and sometimes, the synthetic tooth portion of it too, wandering inside the adjacent nasal and intracranial cavities.  

Although the problem is not life threatening, the problem of implants dislogding and 'traveling' through the facial bone structure is somewhat worrisome, since the now nerveless portion of the gum gives no pain clues as to the movement of the implant itself. 

In some cases, the implant can travel so far as the base of the skull, without the patient knowing, until some collateral symptom appears.   Traveling implants, or implants not set correctly also can allow bacteria to enter the sinus cavities above.

One of the reasons for implant movement, says Dr. Cohen, of Lenox Hill in New York, is that implants should not be placed in portions of the jaw where the bone structure has thinned.  In that case the implant does not 'set' within the jawbone properly, and can become loose. 

Another reason why this particular implant had migrated, Dr. Cohen posits, is that the dental surgeon never attached the synthetic portion of the tooth to it, indicating that the 'implantation' of the metal portion might not have been successful. Had the synthetic tooth been screwed onto the implant pivot, the metal portion might not have dislodged, since the fake tooth provides the metal pivot with a larger base, that prevents it somewhat from slipping inside the facial bone structure. 

Source : NBC/ 10.24.13