Dental implant failure runs between 3 and 5 percent across large clinical studies. Most of it happens in the first few months. Dr. Heber Strobel, DDS, trained at Louisiana State University School of Dentistry and has placed over 70 dental implants in Rexburg. Dr. Dirk Strobel, DDS, trained at Creighton University School of Dentistry. He has practiced in Rexburg for over 40 years. Below is what the failure data shows, which warning signs matter, and what happens next.
You are weighing real money against a small chance of losing it. The fear is that you spend months healing and end up back where you started, minus the money. Failure is uncommon. The causes are known. Walking in without knowing them turns a small risk into a surprise.
How often do dental implants fail?
Somewhere between 3 and 5 percent, depending on which study you read and how long it followed patients. One private practice tracked 9,080 implants over ten years. Three hundred fifty-one of them failed, which works out to a survival rate of 96.13 percent.
That number holds up across the literature. A 2025 scoping review put early failure at 0.5 to 5.2 percent and late failure at 0.5 to 7.8 percent. The spread is wide. Studies define failure differently, and they follow patients for different lengths of time. An implant that loosens at eighteen months counts in some datasets and not in others. Percentages that look precise are hiding that disagreement. Outcomes vary, and no single number covers every case.
What the range does not tell you is when failure happens. That matters more than the headline percentage. Early and late failures have different causes and different fixes. Our page on how long dental implants last covers the other half of it.
What are the warning signs an implant is failing?
Five signs, and none of them should be ignored for more than a few days. A healthy implant feels like nothing at all once it’s healed. Anything that pulls your attention to it is worth a call, though most turn out minor.
- The implant moves at all when you press it with your tongue or a finger
- Gums around it look red, puffy, or pull back to show more of the post
- Pus, a bad taste, or a smell that does not clear with brushing
- Pain that starts weeks or months after everything had settled down
- The bite feels off, or that tooth hits before the others do
Movement is the one that matters most, and it is the one patients notice last. A fused implant doesn’t move. Any give at all means the bond to the bone was lost or never formed. The other four are worth a call this week. Emergency dental care in Rexburg covers what to do if pain or swelling comes on fast.
What is the difference between early and late failure?
Timing splits them cleanly, and the split is lopsided. In that 9,080-implant study, 293 of the 351 failures were early and only 58 were late. Early failure ran about five times more common in that cohort. Early means the implant never fused to the bone at all. The body treated it as a foreign object instead of accepting it.
| Early failure | Late failure | |
| When it happens | Before the crown goes on, usually weeks | After the crown is loaded, often years |
| Share of failures | 293 of 351 in a 9,080-implant study | 58 of 351 in the same study |
| What went wrong | The implant never fused to the bone | The bond formed, then broke down |
| Common causes | Smoking, poor bone quality, surgical error | Peri-implantitis, bite overload, gum disease |
| Where it shows up more | Lower jaw, and in younger patients | Upper jaw, and in older patients |
Late failure gets the attention because it feels worse. You had a working tooth, and then you did not have one. Early failure is far more common and usually easier to recover from, since no crown has been made yet. The site is also cleaner to work with before a restoration has been loaded on it. Nothing has to be unmade before the next attempt.
Why do implants fail in the first place?
Infection around the implant leads the list by a wide margin. The 2025 scoping review found peri-implantitis named in over 150 separate studies, more than any other cause. Peri-implantitis is gum and bone infection around a placed implant. It behaves much like gum disease does around a natural tooth.
After that the causes split by timing. Early failures track back to smoking, poor bone quality, uncontrolled diabetes, radiation treatment, and surgical error. Late failures track back to bite overload, infection, and bad angles. Thin bone is its own category, which is why a bone graft sometimes comes first. Angle matters more than patients realize. An implant set slightly off takes chewing force sideways instead of straight down. Over years that side load loosens the bond.
Does smoking change the odds?
Yes, and by more than most patients expect. One meta-analysis pooled 292 publications, covering 35,511 implants in smokers and 114,597 in non-smokers. Implants in smokers failed at more than twice the rate, with an odds ratio of 2.402.
The same analysis measured bone loss around the implant. Smokers lost an average of 0.58 millimeters more bone at the margin than non-smokers did. That sounds small until you remember the margin is where peri-implantitis starts. Half a millimeter can decide whether the gum seals against the post or leaves a pocket for bacteria.
One finding usually surprises people. The research that flags smoking and radiation as real risks didn’t find the same for controlled diabetes. Radiation treatment to the head or neck was a different story. It carried more than double the risk in the same analysis. Results vary with every patient. None of this replaces an exam.
What happens if an implant fails?
Removal, healing for three to six months, then in most cases a second attempt at the same site. A failed implant is taken out, which is usually simpler than placing it was. What happens next depends on the bone left behind, and on whether the cause was infection, force, or healing.
- The implant comes out, often without cutting, since a failed one is already loose
- The site gets cleaned and any infected tissue is removed
- Bone gets grafted where the failure or the removal left a gap
- Healing has to finish before anything else is attempted
- A replacement implant goes in once the bone can hold it
Replacement works, though the odds shift. Published survival for a second implant at the same site runs lower than for the first. A third runs lower still, though results vary widely by cause. Find the cause before repeating the procedure, because fixing the reason matters more than the second surgery does. Patients come to us from Burton and Rexburg Southwest. Plenty drive in on East 1st South, past the Rexburg Tabernacle Civic Center. Our office on the map sits one turn off that route. That matters when follow-ups run every few months for a year.
What You Walk Out Knowing About Your Own Risk
Dr. Heber Strobel, DDS, places and restores implants here without sending you to Idaho Falls. Dr. Dirk Strobel, DDS, has practiced in Rexburg for over 40 years. The approach does not change. We look at your bone, your gums, and your habits before anyone talks about surgery. You get a straight answer about your own risk. That includes the times we think you should wait, or fix something else first.
Call the office at (208) 356-4400 to talk through an implant, or one that’s already giving you trouble. You can also schedule online. Bring any x-rays from another office if you have them. They save a visit and show how the bone has changed. Nothing about that first conversation commits you to anything.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is peri-implantitis reversible?
Sometimes, and the earlier it is caught the better the odds. Inflammation limited to the gum tissue often settles with cleaning and better home care. Once bone around the implant has been lost, that bone does not grow back on its own. A 2025 scoping review in Frontiers in Oral Health names it the most frequently cited cause of failure.
Can diabetes cause a dental implant to fail?
Less than most people assume, provided the diabetes is well controlled. A meta-analysis of 51 studies covered more than 40,000 implants. It found no significant rise in failure risk from diabetes alone. Radiation treatment to the head or neck was a different story, carrying more than double the risk. Research indexed by the National Library of Medicine covers both findings.
Does quitting smoking before surgery help?
It helps, though the research is clearer that smoking hurts than on exactly how much quitting recovers. Blood flow and healing improve within weeks of stopping. That early healing window is when smoking does the most damage. A critical summary published by the American Dental Association rates the evidence on smoking and implants as limited but consistent. Talk to us about timing before surgery is scheduled.
Am I at higher risk if I lost teeth to gum disease?
Often, yes, because the same tissue has to hold the implant. Gum disease and untreated decay are the two leading causes of tooth loss. Gum disease doesn’t stop mattering once the tooth is gone. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tracks both as primary drivers of tooth loss in adults. Treating the gums first is usually the right order.
