Dental Implants

jill36 wrote: »

Anyone had a dental implant/s - would you recommend this?

It completely depends on why you feel they would be a good idea?

If it’s because a life of fags and Coca Cola have rotted your own teeth away - then implants would be a total disaster unless you have modified your lifestyle choices! But then, until that has happened, you probably wouldn’t be recommended them by any decent dentist anyway.

If it’s to replace one or more teeth in an otherwise well cared for dentition, and it’s been recommended by a dentist who has thoroughly examined you, and you have trust in - then it’s probably a very good idea.

And I have no idea what Brianposter is on about with the vinegar!!!

You do not clean dental implants with vinegar!!!

I can’t really think of anything dental related that should be cleaned with vinegar. My theory is that he was replying to a different thread!

It would be a very bad idea for anyone to rinse regularly with vinegar as it would start to damage their own natural teeth permanently.

Biomet implant surfaces are treated with calcium phosphate , I think, in order to promote bone healing and decrease bacterial load.

The acetic acid in the vinegar may have reacted with the calcium phosphate dissolving it off the surface of the implant where it was in contact with the gums.

The underlying titanium would be very unlikely to be affected by the acetic acid.

brianposter wrote: »

The implant seemed to produce an allergic reaction in my gums and nobody, including the manufacturers (Biomet), seemed to have any idea what to do about it. Even removal was not practical as the implant was properly rooted.

After over a year of agony I tried rinsing the implant in vinegar. The result was almost miraculous and the implant became quite tolerable. Presumably the vinegar changed the surface structure of the implant.

Maybe you should have volunteered a bit more information with your original post then?

This is the first time I have heard of anything like that - either anecdotally or properly reported in the scientific literature. It will be a vanishingly rare complication, and not really one that an average patient would have to worry about.

I do appreciate that up until it happened to you - you too would have been an 'average' patient.

Who suggested the vinegar? How did you apply it to the right surface of the implant? How long did it take to help?

My concern on people writing about such rare experiences is that others might think it's happening to them - and just writing 'washing it with vinegar' is such a brief description that it could lead others to a lot of harm.

The most common problem with implants are caused by people not cleaning them properly. If anyone gets the idea that 'washing with vinegar' might help that - then not only will the implants be even more damaged, but, as Brook said - it will do irreversible harm to their own natural teeth too!