When dental implants were first developed in the 1970s, they weren’t very long-lasting. Now they generally last approximately twenty years or more. After over three decades of research and development combined with the clinical experience gained from over a million patients, they have a success rate of nearly 95 percent. That rate increases for bridges supported by implants. Just how long an individual implant will last, however, depends on several different factors.

Perhaps the most important factor is the patient. Before any dental implant procedure, the patient must commit to practicing good oral health. How well the dental implants are taken care of has a definite effect on how permanent they will be.  The patient must brush and floss to keep them clean in order to help prevent inflammation around the implants.  Regular dentist visits are also important for the life of the implant. The general health of the patient both at the time of the implant and ongoing has a definite effect on how permanent the implant will be.

Finding a dentist who understands and has had experience and training with the procedure is also extremely important.  Dental implantology is a relatively new field and not every dental school has made it a part of the standard curriculum. The dentist should have the expertise necessary to undertake the procedure. Another important aspect is the material and standards that went into making the implants themselves.  Many companies manufacture implant components, but only a few are actually certified by the American Dental Association. To be certified, these companies have to supply research demonstrating that the implants are safe and effective.  Certified implants are made to very exacting tolerances, which may or may not be followed by non-certified implant companies.  Non–certified implants will cost significantly less but may not be high quality, sterilized and manufactured to extremely exacting tolerances.  The different may become obvious after a few years of use.

Back teeth receive more stress and wear from chewing, causing implants in the back of the mouth to typically deteriorate faster than implants located at the front of the mouth.  All these factors combine to determine how long a dental implant will last.  The continual refinement of both the procedure and the implants themselves should mean that implants done today would have a longer life than implants done in the past.  However, even with that said, the typical lifespan of dental implants tends to be approximately twenty years.  Because this procedure is still relatively new, there is not enough implant data from beyond the twenty-year range to give us accurate statistics. What we do know is that there are many dental implants performed over 20 years ago.