Last week, a woman came into Teeth in 24 who had her implants placed about 12 years ago. She had the old acrylic-style teeth, four implants on top, four on the bottom. She came in because they had worn down and started looking, in her words, like garbage. She wanted a new set.
I took her X-rays. I looked at her scans. And I had to tell her something she did not expect to hear.
Three of her eight implants were infected.
She had no idea. No pain. No swelling. No warning. Just like gum disease, implant infections are quiet. They sit underneath your gums for years, slowly eating away at the bone holding your implants in place, and most patients never feel a thing until the implant fails entirely.
This is exactly why I want to talk to you about the three biggest reasons full-mouth implants fail, and why so many people end up paying twice for the same set of teeth.
I am Dr. Lampee. I have 20 years of experience as an implant specialist. I have seen every kind of case walk through my doors, and I have rescued more failed implant cases than I can count. So when I tell you these three things, I am telling you because I want you to get this right the first time.
Reason 1: Poor Planning
The number one reason full-mouth implants fail is poor initial planning.
When I look at your 2D X-rays and your 3D CAT scan, I am not just looking for “is there bone.” I am looking at bone quality and bone quantity. Do you have dense bone like oak, or is your bone more like balsa wood, or worse, like a sponge? Where in your jaw is the best bone located? Where are the nerves? Where are the sinuses?
A standard Teeth in 24 case uses four implants. But if a patient has limited bone or soft bone, I will recommend six implants. Sometimes more. The plan has to fit the patient. The patient cannot be forced to fit a template.
Poor planning does not happen in my practice the way it happens in a lot of other practices. I know exactly where the dense bone is. I know when we need to add extra implants to make sure this case does not fail two years from now. That decision is made before we ever pick up an instrument.
If your surgeon is not doing a full 3D analysis and walking you through where every implant is going and why, you are starting on the wrong foot.
Reason 2: Inexperienced Surgeons
This work is complex. I make it look easy, and that is not arrogance; that is confidence built from doing this thousands of times.
But there are a lot of dentists out there who took a weekend implant course, practiced on a plastic jaw on a tabletop, and decided they were ready to do full-mouth cases in real human mouths. They are not.
An experienced full-arch implant surgeon needs to know how to place implants at 0 degrees, 17 degrees, 30 degrees, and 45 degrees, in every region of the upper and lower jaws. We place implants right at the floor of the nose. We angle implants past the sinuses. We use the pterygoid plates, where your wisdom teeth used to be, to anchor cases when bone is limited. And in rare cases where there is no usable bone in the upper jaw at all, we place zygomatic implants into the cheekbone itself. Zygomatics are the most challenging implants in dentistry. Very few surgeons in North America do them well.
On the lower jaw, there is a nerve running through the bone on both sides. If an inexperienced surgeon hits that nerve, you are numb for the rest of your life. Permanently. A wonky smile, drooling, dribbling, biting your own lip without realizing it. That is not a complication you bounce back from.
You are not going to get that here. We know exactly how to avoid those nerves. But you need to ask the hard question before you commit: how many full-arch cases has my surgeon actually done?
Reason 3: Cheap Materials And Shortcuts
This is the one that makes me the most upset, because patients have no way of knowing what they are getting until it is too late.
If a dentist tells you they are going to give you final teeth made out of nano hybrid, nano ceramic, PMMA, or polymethyl methacrylate, run for the hills. Say no.
Those are fancy words for 3D printed acrylic. That is plastic. I have two 3D printers in my office, and I use them every single day, but I use them to make temporary teeth, not final teeth. They are perfect for temporaries. They are not appropriate as a long-term restoration. I am just going to rip the band-aid off and tell you the truth.
Plastic teeth stain. Plastic teeth wear down. Plastic teeth are weak. And one day you will be eating a piece of bacon, or biting into a sandwich, and you will hear a crack, and you will be holding half a tooth in your hand.
Picture this. You are on a 40th anniversary trip with your wife in Santorini. The whole family is there. You are eating dinner overlooking the Greek sea. Your teeth come loose at the table. There is nobody in Greece who can fix this for you. There is barely anybody in New York who can fix this for you. You are going to fly home holding your smile in a napkin.
At Teeth in 24, you get zirconia. We mill it on site. It is highly customized to your face, your bite, and your smile. The precision is unmatched in the industry. Zirconia does not stain. It does not wear. It does not crack in half because you ordered the wrong sandwich. It is the strongest restorative material in dentistry, and it is the only material I am willing to put in your mouth as a final solution.
The dentists offering cheaper price points are offering cheaper materials. You will be back in two or three years to redo the entire case. They will charge you again. And again. The “cheap” option ends up costing you more than doing it right the first time.
The Quiet Threat Nobody Warns You About
Remember the woman from the start of this post? Three infected implants, zero symptoms.
Dental infections are usually painless. They are quiet. They do their damage slowly, whether they are around natural teeth or around implants. This is true for everyone, but it is especially true once you have implants, because the early warning signs your natural teeth would have given you, like sensitivity and pain, are gone.
This is why I tell every single Teeth in 24 patient the same thing: I want to see you once a year, for the rest of your life. A cleaning, an exam, a quick check. That is how we catch problems while they are still small. That is how your implants last decades instead of years.
My Commitment To You
You are making a big investment when you choose full-mouth implants. I know that. I also know you have probably had bad dental experiences before. A lot of my patients have. So when you sit in my chair, you are not just buying a procedure. You are starting a relationship.
I am not going anywhere. I am invested in this case the same way you are. This is personal for me. These are your teeth for the rest of your life, and I want them to last every single day of it.
If you are thinking about full-mouth implants, do not pick the cheapest option. Do not pick the closest option. Pick the surgeon who has done thousands of these, who plans every case from the bone up, and who will only put zirconia in your mouth.
Come see us at Teeth in 24. Let’s do this right, one time, the right way.
