June 2017 - Ryan Perry, DDS

I’ve got three dental implants. My teeth have been slowly yellowing and I’d like to whiten them, but I’m worried they’ll damage my dental implants. My dentist gave me the screw retained kind of implant so I think I can take them off while I’m whitening if necessary. I think he did that because I told him I wanted to whiten my teeth when we were discussing my tooth replacement options. Unfortunately, my dentist has been sick and is taking an extended leave, so I’ve got to figure this out on my own.

Logan L.

Dear Logan,

I’m sorry your dentist has been ill. I’m guessing you feel out of balance trying to make plans without your normal care giver. I wish your dentist would have whitened your teeth before you received your dental implants. That makes matching everything much easier.

You can still whiten your teeth without fear of it damaging your dental implants. Teeth whitening only works on natural tooth structure, so the gel will whiten your teeth and leave the implant crowns as they are. However, that leaves you with a separate problem. It leaves the implants exactly the way they are. So, if they matched your implants to your older teeth (which I hope they did), they will not match your new beautiful, white color.

Fortunately, you do have screw-retained dental implants. That’s good, because it makes it easier to remove and replace the crown. So, get your teeth whitened. Then give it a couple of weeks for the color to settle down. Make sure your new dentist has some skill with cosmetic dentistry.

This blog is brought to you by Dr. Ryan Perry.

My sister went to Mexico because she wanted to get dental implants, but needed to find someplace which was affordable. It was actually cheaper to leave the country and visit Mexico every other month for close to a year than to pay to have it done here in the states. She researched and went to a dentist who’s done the procedure many times and seemed to have a good experience. Sometime after everything was completed things started to fall apart. She developed an infection. She visited the dentist in Mexico again to have everything looked at. He gave her an antibiotic and sent her home. Then, not too long after she finished the antibiotic her entire face swelled up. She wasn’t even able to get there so I took her. The dentist said it failed and removed the whole thing. Now she has to start all over and has nothing to show for all the expense and travel. I had considered getting dental implants because she’d started out with such a great experience, but now I’m wondering if all affordable dental implants are a total waste of money.

Melissa M.

Dear Melissa,

First, your sister should try to get at least some of her money back. I don’t know if the dentist will do it, but it’s at least worth a shot. In Mexico, there is no recourse even if the dentist totally botched the procedure. It’s up to the dentist to make things right.

There are also no regulations about keeping things sanitized and such. Again, it’s up to the dentist to decide the standards. That could have led to her infection, but we’ll never know. Even though she researched this dentist, they often change their practice name if they develop a bad reputation and make up qualifications in these border town medical practices.

I don’t know if the dentist mentioned this to her but in order to re-do the procedure she’ll need to have bone grafting done. She likely lost a lot of bone with the infection and the implant needs to be stabilized.

If you’re looking for affordable dental implants, you have many options, but you’re safer going to a reputable dentist in the states, where dental implants have a 98% success rate. There are times where a patient and dentist can do everything right but still have a failed implant; however, it’s not nearly as common here for that to happen.

Depending on your case, you may choose to have a combination of bridges and dental implants, or mini implants, or even full dental implants done with affordable payment plans. The key is to find a skilled dentist.

This blog is brought to you by Dr. Ryan Perry.

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