How Long Do Dental Implants Last?

Dental Implants Should Last a Lifetime. 

One of the most common questions Dr. Loetscher gets asked from patients is: “How long do dental Implants last?” We have the answers for you! Dr. Loetscher says if dental implants are properly placed and taken care of, they can last lifetime.  Dr. Loetscher has placed thousands of implants at his practice over the last 25 years.

“One of the questions I often get asked are how long do dental implants last? Or really how long do the teeth last on implants last? And the short answer is for most people they are going to last a lifetime. When we treatment plan, we set up people for implants and our goal is to get the conditions just right so they are going to last your lifetime. The conditions basically consists of healthy bone & healthy gum tissue to put your implants in. So if that’s done properly- sometimes we graft the site ahead of time so you can get a nice tooth that should be great for your whole life. Implants were actually developed in Sweden in the 1960s starting in about 1965 and thousands of patients had whole sets of implant teeth put in and they followed those patients for 25-30 years and 25 years down those patients (about 94%) still have their original sets of teeth in place. Dentistry is by far the most successful treatment modalities we have ever had. When we do a full set of teeth, a couple of the principles we have: you need about 6 implants per dental lodge to support a full set of teeth. If you do four in and you lose one you can lose the bridge and it also doesn’t give you a full set of teeth-so if you have 6 implants properly positioned they are going to last your lifetime. There’s a couple of conditions that can affect them; for example a single implant-if you put them in and a patient has gum disease elsewhere in their mouth, the periodontal pockets can actually have some severe bacteria around those natural teeth that can get to your implant and a couple years later you can get a pocket on the implants. You need to stay with your dentist with your implants and get your teeth cleaned every 3-6 months and if you do all of that it can be a nice lifelong solution.”