I had a dental implant bridge placed, but it does not match up with the rest of my bite. Now the side of my teeth with the dental bridge hits first when I bite down, which hurts a LOT. I am wondering if the surgeon did something wrong. He insisted that he was in charge of the whole thing, but when I went to see an implant dentist after my surgery and he said that he would have recommended a different placement. I don’t know what to do here.
Kate
Dear Kate,
I am glad that you wrote. It sounds like the surgeon threw off your bite with improper placement of the dental implants. This needs to be fixed. If it does not get fixed, it could very likely lead to TMJ Disorder.
It is a basic principle of implant dentistry that it is the restorative dentist who plans the placement, not the surgeon. Yet, your oral surgeon assured you he was in charge. If you can get your dentist to admit that the oral surgeon placed them in the wrong place then you can get a refund from him. I would also ask him to pay for the bone grafting you are now going to need.
Replacing dental implants is not as simple as taking out dental implants and then putting in new ones. When the implants are removed, they will take bone with them. That bone is necessary in order to retain the dental implants. Because of that, you will need a bone grafting procedure to build back up the lost bone.
Then, once the bone grafting is healed, you will be able to have the new implants placed for your implant bridge. Just make certain that your dentist plans the treatment and NOT the surgeon.
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