My Husband’s Implant Bridge is Making Me Sick

Posted by writeradmin

Can you help me convince my husband to switch to non-metal dental implants? He’s got the metal ones right now and the smell is getting to me. I have to face the other direction in bed. He’s got two dental implants and a dental bridge that covers it. I’m convinced the smell is from the metal that is in his jawbone. I would like him to remove those and get the zirconia implants. Unfortunately, his dentist says that is a bad idea. What can I say to change his mind?

Evelyn

Dear Evelyn,

There are quite a few potential causes for the smell you are experiencing with your husband. I honestly do not believe that the titanium dental implants are the cause. They are implanted in his jawbone so it is unlikely you can smell them at all. Titanium is very inert. Even those out in the open do not give off any strong odor. To verify this, you could ask your dentist if you could see one and then simply give it a whiff.

Replacing your dental implants is not as simple as just taking out the old ones and putting in new ones. First, they’d have to be surgically removed. When that happens, he will lose the bone structure that was surrounding the dental implants. That will mean an additional surgical procedure in order to build that structure back up with bone grafting. After that is healed, then, he can finally get those dental implants replaced. That means three unnecessary surgeries for your husband to go through.

I would recommend looking elsewhere for the cause of the smell you are experiencing. It could simply be a matter of food or other debris getting caught in his implant bridge. The first thing I would do is get a Waterpik or something similar to help him really clean out that area before resorting to surgery.

This blog is brought to you by Arnold, MD Dentist Dr. Meredith Esposito.