Immediate Implant Placement

You may have been told by your general dentist or by your periodontist that you have a non-restorable tooth and are a good candidate for an immediate implant. It may be that the tooth has a cracked root, extensive decay or a crown fracture. As the name implies, the implant is placed at the same time as the extraction of the non-restorable tooth. The time frame for restoring immediate implants varies. At your examination, the doctor will let you know when the implant can be restored with a crown by your general dentist.

Usually we will only do immediate implants on single rooted teeth only (incisors, canines, pre-molars), but not in multi-rooted teeth (molars). When attempting to place an implant into a multi-rooted socket there is increased risk of the drill getting deflected into one of the sockets resulting in non-ideal angulation of the implant.

Sometimes the shape of the extraction socket may be larger than the shape of the implant. The extraction socket may be oval, whereas our implants are round. This will create voids where the implant does not contact bone. If this is the case, you may need to have bone grafting done at the time of implant placement. The bone graft will fill in the voids left by the extraction socket. As with all bone grafting, your body will tear down the bone graft and replace it with your own natural bone.

Patients with active infection of the tooth or bone are NOT candidates for immediate implant placement and will have to wait until the infection resolves before an implant can be placed.

According to our study documenting 1,750 implants over a 14-year period, the success rate of immediate implants was the same as delayed implant placement.

It should be noted that immediate-placement does not mean immediately-loaded implants. You need to discuss with your periodontist whether you are a candidate for immediate-load or not.

We do offer a new implant called the Trabecular Implant. The Trabecular implant has a mesh surrounding the implant and is used for an early loading protocol. Trabecular implants can often be loaded in only 2 months as opposed to 4-6 months traditional healing time. Ask Dr. Engen or Dr. Hahn if you are a candidate for the trabecular implant.