Our Blog
11
Jun
For Dental Implant Success, Experience Matters
Overall, dental implants have a very high success rate, perhaps 95% or more, but your success will depend on several factors, including whether you’re a smoker, have gum disease, or care for them properly. And it depends on the experience of your implant dentist.
The success of Immediate Loading Dental Implants
According to one recent study, the experience of the implant dentist is the most important factor in a dental implant procedure. The study looked at dental implant procedures performed by 20 dentists, two of whom were highly experienced and the other 18 of whom were very inexperienced. The 18 inexperienced dentists were actually graduate students learning the procedure.
The two experienced dentists had a failure rate of only 2.4%, compared to the inexperienced dentists whose failure rate was 12.2%. This difference is partly due to the fact that the inexperienced dentists were very inexperienced, but it supports findings in other studies that the experience of an implant dentist is one of the most important factors in the success of a procedure.
Fifty Cases to Proficiency?
Some implant dentists refer to the notion of a 50-case experience level that makes a difference between high and low success rates.
Although there are many studies that support the importance of experience, there doesn’t seem to be good support for this particular figure. One study, for example, suggests that the first nine dental implant procedures are significantly worse than those that follow, but once a dentist reaches nine procedures, success rates do not increase appreciably.
Ask Your Implant Dentist about Experience
There isn’t a hard-and-fast number you can point to that will tell you whether a dentist has enough experience to perform your dental implant procedure. Instead, you have to talk to them about their experience and judge for yourself. Here are some important things to ask implant dentists:
- Have you undergone postgraduate training in dental implants, either as periodontists or in a separate program?
- How many cases have you performed?
- What is your success rate?
- Can I talk to a patient who has had dental implants placed five years ago or more?
It’s important to talk to patients who have had their dental implants for a while to get a good idea about the dentist’s long-term success rate. A good dentist will be able to maintain a long-term relationship with patients and should have no trouble getting you in touch with several patients who have had their implants for many years if they have been placing dental implants for several years.
If you want to learn what makes Nicolas A. Ravon, DDS, MSD an exceptional dentist providing dental implants in Beverly Hills, please call (310) 275-5325 today.