Yes, re-treatment is possible after proper healing.
Recognizing the reality of a dental implant failure can feel like a massive weight has been dropped on your head. You gave your time, emotional energy, and money, expecting a permanent solution, only to be taken back to the dental chair for a loose screw or infection. It’s disappointing, and if you ask me, it’s downright terrifying.
However, the honest reality that we are sharing with each patient who comes to Lema Dental Clinic in Turkey is this: A failure is not a closed case. It is simply one of the clinical complications that we are capable of managing, reversing, and correcting.
Can you really do re-treatment? Yes. Actually, under the leadership of doctors like Prof. Dr. Coşkun Yıldız, re-treatment isn’t just something that can be done—it is a standard, very successful procedure. So, the route to your second time largely depends on the reason why the first time failed and the state of the remaining bone.
The Anatomy of Failure: Why Do Implants Let Go?
Before there is a solution, it is essential to first comprehend the fault. Let us say that if you were to equate a dental implant with a fence post being put in the ground. If the soil (your jawbone) is strong and healthy, the post can resist the wind (chewing forces). On the other hand, if that soil gets damaged—by bacteria or bad placement—the post will start to shake.
In our clinical practice, the main offenders that we have seen are:
- Peri-implantitis: Simply put, this is a situation of gum disease around the implant. The bone gets eaten away as if it were wood attacked by termites.
- Occlusal Overload: This is when the bite is not perfectly balanced and the implant ends up getting an excessive amount of stress, so the bone starts to pull away in self-defense.
Removing a dental implant is quite a delicate operation. We won’t just be pulling it out. We will carefully unscrew or trephine the implant to preserve as much as possible of this precious ”soil” as possible.
The Re-Treatment Roadmap: Grafting and Healing
Removing a non-functional implant is akin to a fresh start. We return to zero. Now, the real question is whether it is possible to insert a new one immediately? In some cases. However, the majority of the time, the wisest decision is just to wait.
If infection has been the case and the jawbone is like a huge hole, placing an implant straight away would be like building a house on a sinking foundation. It’s going to collapse. That is the reason why the role of Professor Doctor Coşkun Yıldız here is extremely important. Most of the time, we have to do Guided Bone Regeneration (GBR) initially.
So if you compare the defect in your jawbone to a pothole, then repairing the pothole with bone graft material is like putting gravel and cement, and then a membrane on top. This membrane acts like a shelter, keeping the gum tissue from growing in too fast, while the bone which is slower to grow gets enough time to fill the hole.
The Role of Precision in Your Second Chance
While surgery provides the basis, the final crown or bridge is the finishing touch. If the roof either leaks or weighs too much, the foundation will suffer.
That is the very reason why Dentist Polen Akkılıç and her team play such an important and precise role at the planning stage of your re-treatment. Digital smile design and intraoral scanning are used to make sure that the new prosthetic evenly spreads pressure over your jaw. At Lema Dental Clinic, a missing tooth is not just looked at; the whole mouth’s mechanical system is considered.
In Turkey, it is very convenient for us to obtain the highest grade of biological materials and the most advanced imaging technology at a very low cost compared with the UK or the US, which enables us to be very aggressive with healing therapies while maintaining your budget.
Comparing Your Options: The Re-Treatment Pathways
Not every failed implant has to be fixed in the same way. Below is the explanation of how we arrive at a timeline for you.
| Scenario | Bone Condition | Typical Timeline | Success Probability |
| Immediate Replacement | Minimal bone loss; implant removed due to fracture, not infection. | Same-day placement. | High (95%+) |
| Delayed (Early) | Soft tissue healing needed; minor infection present. | Removal + 4–8 weeks. | High |
| Staged Approach | Major bone loss (crater); acute infection. | Graft + 4–6 months. | Moderate to high, depending on graft success |
| Zygomatic / Pterygoid | Severe maxillary atrophy with no usable jawbone. | Immediate, without using a jawbone. | High, requires advanced surgical expertise |
Frequently Asked Questions
Being frank is our stance here. Since we are dealing with tissue that is already inflamed, the removal and grafting procedure might cause more swelling than a normal placement. Nevertheless, sedation options that are available to you at Lema Dental Clinic will allow you to have the operation without feeling any pain whereas we are very productive in the management of post-op discomfort.
If we go with the “Staged Approach” in order to achieve the highest success rate, you should count on 4 to 6 months of healing. It does sound like quite a long time, but the surest way to fail twice is to rush a damaged site. We want you to consider this as the final time you have to be bothered with this tooth.
A titanium screw might be basically a super-strong material; however, your body is not. Your health changes, you might start smoking, diabetes can become uncontrolled, or even the bite can shift a little, so that the biological seal around the metal is disturbed. The material is ararelyat fault – it’s the environment that surrounds the metal which is failing.
Re-treatment can be quite complicated in comparison to the first time which typically means bone grafts and membranes. Nevertheless, due to the fact that our operational costs are much lower here in Turkey, a comprehensive re-treatment package with the graft at Lema can be less expensive than a single standard implant in London or New York.
Certainly. However, let’s first see what you are compromising. A bridge would mean that we need to cut the two healthy teeth next to the space. You would be trading in two strong soldiers to rescue one missing. If the re-implantation is biologically possible, then providing this is your long-term oral health almost always ensured way.
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- Quaranta, A., et al. (2014). Re-treatment of failed dental implants: A review. Journal of Oral Implantology, 40(6), 755-760.
- Zhou, W., et al. (2016). Feasibility of dental implant replacement in failed sites: A systematic review. International Journal of Oral & Maxillofacial Implants, 31(3).
