The number of “Hollywood smile” operations that go wrong should be made clearer to patients, dentists have said.
Dental implants, which can give you a George Clooney smile if you have £30,000, are fast becoming more popular than traditional dentures for the over-60s, but the long-term effects of the surgery have yet to be seen.
The number of people in the UK with implants is not known because private practices, which perform most operations, are not required to provide data to dental health organisations.
Dentists would like to see “statistical clarity” on the number of implant failures, as diseases such as peri- implantitis become more prevalent.
Peri-implantitis is a painless but highly damaging bacterial disease that eats away at the jawbone. It can be caused by a build-up of plaque and is a rising risk because many people do not know how to look after their implants.
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Ben Atkins, clinical director of the British Dental Health Foundation, said: “Expensive teeth need servicing like an expensive car needs servicing. All the research suggests that implant success rates are high but the long-term stats are less clear and we need statistical clarity.”
A spokesman for the British Academy of Cosmetic Dentistry said that “implants fail for various reasons but it’s very rare”.