Factors Responsible for the Success Rate of Dental Implants

Dental implants have a very high success rate because of which many people opt for it to replace their missing and damaged teeth. There are various things that success rate of dental implant depend on, such as site of the implant, type of the implant, implant design, health conditions, age and operator skill.

  • Site of the implant: The success rate of dental implants depends on the position of implant on the jaw bone i.e., upper jaw or lower jaw. If an implant is placed in the lower jaw it has high rate of success and when you move on into the mouth the rate of success decreases gradually. Based on the position of implant, it has a success rate of about 98%.
  • Type of implant: Based on the type of implant materials like stainless steel implants, metallic implants and ceramic implants, the success rate may vary. Stainless steel implants have less chances of success of implant placement as they may brittle. Metallic implants have high chances of success compared to other types of implants.
  • Implant design: The length and internal diameter of the implant should be selected depending on the amount of the jaw bone. Longer implants have high success rate because there will be an increased contact between bone and the implant which leads to increase in the mechanical resistance to the masticatory forces where short implants have less contact with the jaw bone and less resistance to occlusive forces leads to failure of implants.
  • Health condition: Patients health condition and their habitual action also affects the success rate of implants. People with good oral hygiene and enough jaw bone density have high rates of success. Patients with a habit of smoking decreases success rate by 10%. Patients having a habit of drinking, disorders such as thyroid, diabetes, hypertension, renal disorders have less success rate. Patients with mental disorders like depression have high rates of failure as implant adds additional stress on them.
  • Age: Age and gender also influence the implantation rate of success. People above 60 years and children are not suitable for implants. In older persons, changes in the mineral composition of bones and collagen content takes place. Children with growing jaw bone is not suitable for implant placement.
  • Operator skill: Operator’s experience also decides the success rate of implant placement. It is clear that surgeons having an experience of more than 50 implant surgeries have high success rate compared to surgeon having an experience of less than 50 implant surgeries.

Apart from these, design of the prosthesis and time of placement of implant also decides the success rate of implant. Overall we can say that dental implantation is an alternative for people with missing teeth as it has high rate of success.