Does it matter which implant system my dentist uses?

The brand doesn't change your surgery

Any well-made implant from a reputable maker will bond with your bone. That part is largely solved. You won't feel a difference on the day, and your surgeon won't either in any way that affects your result.

Where brands differ is everything after, over ten, fifteen, thirty years. That's where the real differences are, and patients are rarely told about them.

The connector question

Between your implant and your teeth sits a small connector called a multi-unit abutment. Think of it as a translator. Since about 2015 there's been an industry-standard design that most systems accept.

Whether your implant takes that standard connector is the most important thing about it.

If it does, you can go anywhere. Any good practice with modern equipment can scan you, design for you and make your teeth. If you move, or want to be seen somewhere else, you're never stranded.

If it doesn't, you're tied to whoever placed it, and to whether that company still exists.

We see this often. Patients come in with implants from makers that have closed, systems whose parts were never standard, and connectors nobody makes any more. We can almost always solve it, but it turns a routine case into a puzzle, and now and then the answer is replacing implants that were otherwise healthy.

How easy it is to keep clean

Where your teeth meet the implant there's a small platform, a disc the teeth sit on. Some designs seal cleanly all the way around. Others put screws through that ring, leaving tiny gaps and edges where plaque collects.

You'll never see it and you can't clean it. It's decided before your surgery, by whoever chooses the parts.

Over the years, places for bacteria to sit mean more risk of inflammation around the implant, which is what your maintenance visits are there to catch. Two people with the same daily care can end up with different results because of the parts chosen.

How the parts join

Systems join the abutment to the implant in different ways. A tapered joint seats differently from a flat one, and that affects the seal and how chewing forces pass into the bone.

You don't need the engineering. It's a real difference, surgeons have strong views on it, and a good practice can explain its choice if you ask.

One platform for every size

Some systems use the same platform whatever the width of the implant. Others change parts as the implant gets wider.

One platform means fewer parts and fewer things to go wrong. It also means a replacement implant years from now still takes the parts your teeth were built around.

Length, and why fewer implants can be longer

Longer implants generally touch more bone and start out more stable.

Put more implants in an arch and each has less room, so they tend to be shorter. When we placed six, the standard was around 10 to 11mm. With four, it's 11.5 to 13mm.

That's one more reason fewer implants can be the better choice.

Price isn't how we choose

Cheaper implants exist, and so do pricier ones, and paying more doesn't reliably buy you anything. We've changed implant systems four times, and never to save money.

What drives the choice is everything that comes with the hardware: how the parts fit our workflow, what the connection allows, what parts are on hand, and whether there's real support when something goes wrong late on a Friday. The last time we considered a change, the reasons ran to more than thirty points, and price wasn't one of them.

Why we don't name it here

We'll tell you at your consultation and explain why.

We keep it off the website because systems change. We've changed four times, so a page naming a brand would quietly go out of date. A brand name also invites comparing labels, when the reasons are what count.

Know what to ask, and you can judge any practice, including ours.

What to ask

Does this implant take a standard multi-unit abutment? It's the most important question, and hardly anyone asks it. It decides whether anyone else can help you later.

How long has the maker been around, and how long have you used them? When companies close, their parts go with them.

Why this system rather than another? Anyone who has chosen carefully will give you several reasons. Anyone who hasn't will say it's the best, or mention the sales rep.

If an implant fails in ten years, what happens? You want to hear that it'll be replaced with a matching part and your existing design file reused. If the answer is starting over, that tells you how the case was built.