Dental Implant Consent Information

The consent form includes but is not limited to the following risks:

Pain, bruising, and swelling around the jaw are very common side effects following dental implant placement. Local anaesthetic to numb the area will be injected at the start of your procedure but when this wears off after several hours, you may start to experience some discomfort.
Infection is also a potential risk following dental implant placement. Maintaining good oral hygiene and the avoidance of smoking will help avoid this complication.

Bleeding at the dental implant site can occur. This will be more common if you have been taking blood thinning medications prior to your procedure.
Due to numbness from local anaesthetic injection, you will need to take care to not bite a numb lip which can cause damage after your procedure.
There is potential damage to nearby nerves in your jaw during your procedure. This may cause pain, tingling, or numbness in the lower lip, chin, teeth, gums, and tongue. This is usually a temporary problem but can be permanent in some cases.
There is potential damage to nearby teeth during dental implant placement.
For an implant placed in the upper jaw, if this is close to the sinus, this may cause a communication between the mouth and the sinus. If this occurs, you may need further surgery to repair.
Although the success rate for dental implants is very high, there is a risk of failure of the implant to be integrated into the jawbone. The risk of failure is higher, for example, in smokers, diabetics or patients with bone disorders. If the implant fails to integrate with the jawbone (known as osseo-integrate), an alternative option may need to be explored.

During and following dental implant placement, jaw weakness can occur. In very rare circumstances, such as in patients with weakened bones or osteoporosis, jaw fracture may occur either during the procedure or during the healing period afterwards.
An extremely rare complication is jaw necrosis (the jaw bone dying). The incidence of this occurring is higher in patients taking certain medications such as bisphosphonates or Prolia which slow down osteoporosis, or if you are receiving radiation to the head or neck area.