Lifespan of a Dental Implant
At almost every dental consultation we are asked the question: what is the lifespan of the proposed solution? Whether it is dental implants, prosthetics, or veneers, all patients want to know how soon they need to be at the dentist again. The answer is complex, so it is best to individually consider the sustainability of these methods and the factors that determine them.
Does an implant last a lifetime?
In the case of implants, the answer comes from the scientific literature. Clinical cases attest to the correct functioning of prostheses on implants for an average time of 10-15 years exceeding 95 percent. That means that over 95% of people who take care of their implants still have them after 15 years. To ensure that a dental implant has the longest possible duration, it is important to take care of your implant through regular dental hygiene and dentist visits. Whether or not your implant lasts that long (or longer) depends on a lot of things, including your age when you got the implant, how well you take care of your oral hygiene, and how well the artificial root has taken to your jawbone, a process which is called osseointegration.
Ideally, implants are placed in the bone with the optimum thickness, that is, between 6.5 and 8 millimeters. From a durability standpoint, the height of the bone is even more important: the longer the implant, the more stable and resilient it will be. The shortest implant is 8 millimeters and the longest is twice this, so 16 millimeters. The strength of the bone also contributes to the stability of the implant.
It may seem strange that the thickness and level of adhesion of the gum to the bone also affects the durability of the implant. Bacteria have a harder time getting under thick, tough gum tissue. These two factors therefore considerably extend the life of the implant.
After osseointegration of the implant and preparation of the prosthesis, good oral hygiene must be observed. We will of course put an emphasis on this fact in the case of each type of prosthesis! Implants respond to inflamed gums just like real teeth. The inflammation around the implant is called peri-implantitis and it is more difficult to treat than periodontitis, the inflammation around the tooth. The two determining factors are therefore the maintenance of good oral hygiene and the proper cleaning of the implant. Occasionally, due to different circumstances, implants can fail, shortening their lifespan.
When an implant does not fit in the jaw, it is never a rejection phenomenon in the medical sense of the term in fact. This has nothing to do with the immunological reactions of rejection observed in the case of organ transplants (skin, kidney, etc.). Clearly, it is not the patient's body that rejects a foreign body.
In implantology, we will therefore speak of implant failure and not rejection. The phenomenon of osseointegration, a biological phenomenon that results in the anchoring of the implant to the jaw, can malfunction for various reasons: mainly mechanical or infectious, but it is never a rejection of principle of the body.
What about the lifespan of implant alternatives?
Crowns and veneers
Crowns can be prepared from different materials (see metal-ceramic, zircon-ceramic or all-ceramic crowns). As for the veneers, they are usually made of ceramic. The durability of these prostheses depends on their resistance to chewing forces and to rupture. Talk to your dentist about what materials they use, and make sure your individual characteristics and biology are taken into account. For example, if a person has very strong jaw muscles and the wear and tear on their teeth shows that they are chewing intensely, the best choice solution could be ceramic-metal crowns, which are the most resistant. As for the front teeth, we often recommend crowns or bridges without metal, since they are more aesthetic and these teeth work a bit less than molars and therefore less exposed to fracture.
We must also talk about aesthetic durability, because after many years we sometimes have to change a crown or a veneer, not because it fell or broke, but because the gum retracted and thus the tooth below became visible. The color of this tooth may be different from that of the false tooth, so patients often find it necessary to have it changed. Crowns and veneers are prepared while protecting the gum tissue, so they should only be changed after 10-15 years. The individual factors are also important: the thick gum does not retract easily.
With veneers as well as implants, the durability and lifespan is linked to how well you clean and take care of your teeth. If plaque remains on the tooth for a long time, bacteria can enter it through the junction between the denture and the natural tooth. If a petient doesn't brush their teeth, even the most beautiful, long-lasting tooth underneath the crown will be decayed in no time, a year or two, while under ideal conditions, the crown lasts 10-20 years.
Dental bridges
Many of the same factors that influence the life of the implant, crowns, and veneers also influence the life of a bridge. However, in the case of bridges, we must consider more carefully which material we choose, because it is not advisable to make a long bridge, replacing several missing teeth, of a material without metal (zirconia) - in this case the more suitable solution is the ceramic-metal bridge.
If a bridge is placed on natural teeth (not on implants), the abutment teeth become potential targets for bacteria. The more abutment teeth there are, the greater the risk becomes. Even if it is only one tooth that it is affected by bacteria, the entire bridge needs to be changed.
This is the reason why the implant solution is said to be more durable. Instead of choosing a long bridge, it is better to have implants placed, because in this way we can prepare the replacement of teeth of several pieces. Therefore, in case of correction, only the damaged part should be changed, not the entire bridge.