Treatment
Dental Implants
Make An Appointment
A staff member will contact you to schedule your appointment.
Payment Options
We work to make it as easy and convenient as possible for you to receive the periodontal care you need, and we offer several payment options.
New Patient Forms
Have an appointment soon? Fill outthe forms needed for your appointment here.
Make An Appointment
A staff member will contact you to schedule your appointment.
Payment Options
We work to make it as easy and convenient as possible for you to receive the periodontal care you need, and we offer several payment options.
New Patient Forms
Have an appointment soon? Fill outthe forms needed for your appointment here.
Expert dental implant care specialist in San Antonio
As a periodontist, Dr. Young is an implant placement specialist, and he is very knowledgeable and experienced in the diagnosis and treatment of dental implant complications. He uses thorough diagnostics and advanced, minimally invasive procedures to restore the stability and health of compromised implants where possible.
Dr. Young will occasionally see new patients who received implants from another dentist in the past but are now having problems with them. Although statistically, the great majority of implant placements are successful, a small percentage of them develop complications which need treatment or replacement with a new implant.
Sources of Dental Implant Problems
Bone integration failure
Sometimes an implant is placed in a location where there is inadequate bone support, or it is placed in the wrong position. At other times the implant can be placed properly but fails to integrate (fuse) with the surrounding bone, leaving the implant unstable and subject to becoming loose. Flawed placement or lack of bone integration also leaves the implant more susceptible to infection.
Infection
Peri-implantitis is a special type of gum disease around implants that is characterized by inflammation of the gums, and by bone loss around the implant. A variety of factors can cause this, including poor oral hygiene, smoking, health problems such as diabetes, or excess dental crown cement leaking below the gum line. It can also occasionally be caused by bite misalignment where the implant crown, unbeknownst to the patient, is hitting too hard against the teeth in the opposing arch.Restoration placed too soon
Final crowns, bridges or dentures are sometimes loaded onto the implants at the time the implants are placed. Immediate loading of final restorations saves time and money when it is done on implants that are stable enough to handle it. But if the restoration is placed before the implant can easily manage the added biting and chewing pressure, the implant can become destabilized.Who are candidates for Dental Implants?
Thorough examination and diagnosis
Dr. Young will conduct a full examination to determine the extent of any infection and instability. He will take any needed digital X-rays and a 3D CT scan if necessary in order to see the extent of bone loss on the affected implant and also check if the problem reaches beyond just the implant.
Providing the implant is not placed so poorly that it cannot be saved and is not otherwise too compromised, Dr. Young will address the infection, bone loss and instability using advanced laser therapy and other minimally invasive procedures.
Advanced laser cleaning and disinfection
Dr. Young uses a dental laser to gently open up the gum pocket around the infected implant and kill any bacteria that are causing trouble. He will additionally use an ultrasonic scaler to gently clean away the bacterial deposits around the implant, and he will use a dental jet spray to remove any remaining remnants. Using the laser on a different setting, Dr. Young will stimulate new bone regeneration around the implant while further disinfecting the pocket. He will then seal the pocket so it can heal.Bite adjustment
If the implant crown was found to be hitting too hard against the opposing arch, Dr. Young will adjust the surfaces of the opposing teeth so the bite forces are normalized and there is no future bite impact trauma.
He will also examine your bite to see if the implant crown is impacting too heavily against the teeth in your opposing arch.
Replacing a failed implant
If the implant cannot be saved, Dr. Young will remove the implant and replace it. In this event, he will describe the treatment needed to you in detail, after full diagnostics, and he will answer any of your questions so you are thoroughly informed about what is going to happen during each step of treatment.
