EC Dental Science

Despite their documented success, dentists will spend time, energy, and resources to determine if and how failed dental implants can be explanted and replaced with a new fixture. Failed dental implants can be devastating to patients, since dental implant removal and reimplantation typically spans 12 months or more, during which time they endure additional surgeries, bone/tissue grafting, and healing before reimplantation can occur. Furthermore, although reimplantation can be successful, their survival rates are lower than implants placed in fresh sites. Fortunately, there are implants that are specifically designed with incrementally increasing diameter sizes to replace failed dental implants. These implants can be incorporated as part of a systematic contingency plan for immediate reimplantation in the unlikely event of osseointegration failure. This article reviews the implant characteristics that contributes to a successful reimplantation in sites that have previously failed, presenting two cases in which immediately placing implants two width sizes larger (e.g. HexaPlus™, OsseoFuse^®; SinusFuse^®, OsseoFuse^®) in the original osteotomy site reached optimal primary stability.

Keywords: Reimplantation; Osseointegration; Drilling; Implant

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