Amelia
Dear Amelia,
I can tell that you are frustrated and think that I can be of some help to you. While I do believe that you are smelling something and it probably smells rancid, like your husband’s dentist, I do not think it is because of the dental implants. The metal used in dental implants is titanium. Not only is this very biocompatible, but it is also inert. As such, it should have no real smell at all. I bet if you asked your dentist if you could smell one of the loose fixtures that he has around, he would let you. You probably won’t get any metallic smell from it. Your husband’s implants are deep in his jawbone, so it is even more unlikely that you will smell them there unless he had developed an infection. If that happened, he would be in pain, likely have a fever, and the implants will become loose and need to be removed anyway.
So what is the rotten smell that you keep coming across? Bare in mind that I have not examined your husband, but I do believe I have an idea of what could be going on. The simplest explanation is that he has food and other bacteria getting caught in his dentures, which would create an awful smell. An easy way to see if this is the problem would be to get him something like a WaterPik to help him really get in there and clean out any debris that is caught. He could also use a peroxide rinse to help, but don’t do that too often or it could lead to thrush.
Replacing his dental implants would require three extra and unnecessary surgeries all of which put the success of his implants in jeopardy.
This blog is brought to you by West Seneca Dentist Dr. Carl Embury.
