Archive for December, 2008

The gumline on my implant is higher than my other teeth

Saturday, December 27th, 2008
Just had a dental implant done in September on my very front tooth. I don’t like how it looks: the gum line is higher than the rest of my front teeth. And The front tooth sticks out like a sore thumb.
It’s just a temporary crown now. Is this how I can expect my permanent tooth to look?
The dentist placed a temporary crown saying that the gumline will drop to this crown while it is one. Is this what really happens?
Also, the temporary stands out looking like ad obviously fake tooth. Is this what the permanent tooth will look like? After spending $6000 on this tooth, I expect it to look better.
I had a flipper in their before and THAT looked better than THIS
- Melanie from Ontario
Melanie – I have a couple of points here.
First, I believe that when the gum on the dental implant is higher than the rest of your teeth, that there was either a surgical error in placing the implant, or a planning error on where to place it. Or it could be that there was just a peculiarity of your mouth that led to this happening.

It sounds like your dentist is doing the right thing under the circumstances. The proper way to treat a case of unevenness in the very front is to wear a temporary crown as you try to get the crown to look exactly like the one beside it. It can be tricky getting that done.

But I would still ask for a second opinion. And remember that the best way to get a second opinion is not to give the new dentist any clue about the treatment plan you got from the first one. You want their judgments to be completely independent.

It is hard to get gums to grow back once they’ve receded, but it can be done with careful care and carefully following your dentists instructrions.

In our office for dental implant cases, we place prototype crowns that are shaped, colored, and positioned just like your permanet crowns are done. You then wear this “prototype smile” home to make sure you feel comfortable with it. Only when you are satisfied do we complete the case by permanently bonding the permanent crowns to the implants.

Related links:
Dental implant failure
Dental implant surgery - Dr. Chal carefully explains the straightforward surgical procedures required to place a dental implants.
Dental implants cost