How Long Dental Implants Last

Video Transcript

"Also we know that when we put an implant in is not so much how long it is or how big it is really it is how wide a diameter it is. You know when we bite down most of the pressure is on the upper 1/3 of that implant just like our natural teeth. This is something that we discover so that the link is not so much critical. What they have found over the years is that because of these long implants a lot of the implants are failing because they break and we have found that this is caused by metal fatigue because what happens is that these implants even though they are long and look very stable but the pressure does not come all the way down so they just kind of sit there and in some ways they corrode. Only the upper 1/3 of the implant takes the pressure so you can put a 20 mm implant in there but really only the upper 1/3 of that implant is the most critical part and the rest is not. Then we also know that when we put something long into the jaw bone the ability to maintain a straight and parallel line becomes more critical. You might hit some vital structure too and that is why we don't need those stresses or those headaches. We want to make sure that we make the proper implant into the proper location to be able to hold that weight and even now with the new technology it is not so much the diameter any more like some of these implants are coming out basically saying we were able to lock into the bone by using just a small portion of the implant in it but keeping it small so we can place a different type of crown on top with the dentist's choice. So it is no longer limited to one size fits all type of thing."