The choice to replace lost teeth with a dental implant is already in itself a choice that involves many doubts. In fact, there are many questions that a patient asks himself before proceeding with an implant surgery:
Will I really have my teeth in 24 hours?
Is it true that you don’t feel pain?
As much as we dentists always try to answer in full, the best answers are always your smiles at the end of the implantology. At the precise moment when the dream of new and fixed teeth is finally fulfilled, a further doubt arises with arrogance:
How long does a dental implant last?
There is no clear answer to this question. The duration of a dental implant depends on many factors, in particular on the planning of the intervention and on the ability to follow the indications of your dentist in the post-surgery procedure.
Does the dental implant last 10/15 years on average?
The dental implant has an average duration of 10/15 years *. It can last longer if …
- the patient is an optimal clinical case for implantology. What does it mean? It means that you are in excellent health, you have no previous pathologies, you are not a smoker, there are no ongoing infections in the oral cavity and the quality of the maxillary or mandibular bone is good, that is, it has excellent density and thickness.
- no savings is performed. Quality implants are much more expensive, but are preferred by implantologists because they guarantee better performance. Furthermore, if the minimum number of implants is placed, there is a greater probability that, over time, the entire prosthesis may fail. In some cases, especially when the patient is young, it would be better to have more implants.
- The statistical data consider interventions carried out about 20 years ago. Since then, there has been a progressive improvement of techniques and technologies.
- The ideal starting condition is certainly an excellent advantage, but not sufficient. To this must be added a constant oral hygiene and checkups and monitoring of the dental implant.
Elements that contribute to the duration of a dental implant
Prosthesis and hygiene
The prosthesis is the most exposed part of a dental implant, it is the visible part and also the one that is most 
subject to wear. Taking care of the prosthesis means first of all taking care of its hygiene. The presence of food residues or incorrect dental hygiene can favor the appearance of plaque and tartar. One of the areas to be carefully subjected to oral hygiene is the borderline between the prosthesis and the gum. The presence of harmful bacteria in that area could give rise to inflammation and therefore to peri-implantitis.
Peri-implantitis has the same characteristics that periodontitis can have: the infection attacks the bone in which the dental implant is inserted and causes it to fall. The loss of a dental implant due to external causes, such as poor hygiene, for example, can occur even after a long time after implant surgery. For this reason, in addition to the usual home hygiene, it is advisable to plan deep cleaning sessions and monitor the health of the prosthesis.
In fact, the prosthesis, if worn or compromised, being screwed to the dental implant, can be replaced or remodeled without any consequence for the implant itself.
Titanium implant
The titanium implant (i.e. the screw) generally has a lifetime warranty. If a screw breaks and therefore affects the entire prosthesis, the causes must be found upstream, in the pre-intervention phase. Correct positioning of the implant in the bone and above all the evaluation of the anatomy conditions and the general state of the patient in the planning phase of the intervention is a necessary condition to guarantee the stability of the prosthesis over time.
Unlike the loss of the implant, which can occur even after a long time after the implant surgery, an incorrect assessment of the patient’s condition can lead to implant failure in the short term.
Implant failure is the condition whereby the titanium screw cannot integrate properly with the bone (lack of osseointegration) and causes the fall of the dental implant.
You are highly likely to experience implant failure when:
- during the operation, the patient is affected by a gingival infection or periodontitis;
- the patient is an avid smoker;
- the patient has cardiovascular disease;
- the patient is also an oncological patient;
- the patient undergoes pharmacological treatments for osteoporosis.
In the presence of gum infections or periodontitis, the patient can undergo an implantology intervention only after treating the infections present. The same indication also for avid smokers, without a reduction in the habit of smoking, the patient could experience more frequent inflammation of the oral cavity.
In light of all these considerations, we would like to underline how important it is for us at Sanident to be able to make use of the most sophisticated technological devices for the planning of implant surgery in detail.
The combination of experience, quality materials and technology, on our part, and patient care and constancy guarantee a long life for the dental implant, well beyond the 10/15 years reported in the literature.
* The scientific literature (Torabinejad et al., J Endod 2015; Setzer & Kim, J Dent Res 2014; Lang et al., COIR 2012) reports that the duration of a dental implant is on average 10/15 years for 95 % of clinical cases.
