Implant Fracture

Q: My implant fractured a few months ago.  That is what I was told by my dentist.  What should I do? Do I need to have it taken out like my dentist recommends?  –Heart broken.

Dental implant fracture seen on x-ray image

A: I am sorry to hear that your implant fractured.  When the screw that connects the abutment to the implant is fractured, the screw alone can be replaced with a new one.  Replacing a broken abutment screw, however, is very difficult.  If the implant fixture is fractured, it needs to be removed.  There is no way a fractured implant can be repaired.  Take a look at the images of a fractured implant case that I encountered.  The patient came in for an implant consultation for a tooth in the upper right area.  When a panoramic x-ray image was taken, the implant in the lower left (#18) was found to be fractured.  You can see the bone loss around the implant.  When the patient was informed about the implant fracture, he chose to have it removed.

Fractured implant removed.

While the patient was numb on lower left area for deep cleaning (scaling and root planing), the implant was removed.  Since there was so much bone loss, the implant was turned counter clock-wise and taken out quite easily.  After having so much bone loss, the implant was easy to remove.  The downside of waiting so long is not having enough bone for future implant placement.  Bone grafting is necessary to prepare for future implant placement.  In this case, the patient chose not to have an implant in #18 area.  I think he made the right choice.  Here is a picture of the implant after I removed it.  It appears to be a NobelBiocare Replace Select implant fractured. You can see that a part of the platform fractured away.  When this type of fracture happens to an implant, you can not screw an abutment on to the implant.  Because the patient had waited so long, food debris and bacteria have caused inflammation of the tissues and loss of bone.

So, back to the reader’s questions, if the implant fixture itself is fractured, the implant will more likely have to be removed.

Questions?  Ask Dr. Implant.