Horrible smell in Dental Implant site

I saw your post that you put in about 4 years ago. I am having exactly the same problem.

I was wondering if you ever found a solution .

Please share. I am tired of the smell and am angry with the guy who did the implants as well as the bridges over the implants all upper teeth

hello, I got a dental implant about seven months ago and immediately started smelling something weird in my nose. I mentioned it to my dentist and she said it was the stitches. So I believed her at that point but the smell continued off and on in my sinuses. I didn’t smell anything in my mouth. so it healed for about four months and it had a big Divet in the side of my gums which looked terrible. So my dentist tried to fill it up with some grafting bone from a cadaver which was fine but then I started smelling the smells even worse. The antibiotics would always knock out the smells but is soon as I got off the antibiotics the smells will come back within five days. It seemed like it was also affecting my body making my bones and body hurt all over so she ended up taking out all of the bone material. she said that it had caused a little Divet in my bone but I don’t even know whether to believe her I think maybe she had gotten to close with the implant to the side of my bone. anyway it’s been about two months since then and I’ve been on antibiotics often on for this whole time and each time I get off the antibiotics the smell comes back so she puts me on antibiotics again to get rid of it but the fact is if you look at the CAT scan x-rays the dental implant looks right up next to my sinuses but when I ask other dentist about it they say it looks fine. now I’m having pain on the two teeth around the implant and we still haven’t even placed the tooth crown on yet because of all these complications so I don’t know what whether to have the implant removed or what but I'm going to Ears Nose And Throat Dr and other periodontist dentists. I have a real CAT scan to be performed next week and the Ears Nose And Throat doctor will definitely tell me if the implant is touching my sinuses or not and he thinks it’s the implant that’s causing that he’s terrible smells. The periodontist I saw the other day and he seems to think there’s no infection but there’s got to be because the smell goes away every time I take antibiotics. The ears nose and throat doctor says I have to be off antibiotics for at least a week or two for him to even see anything on the CAT scan so that’s why I have to wait till next week to get it done. so anyway my experience with dental implants has been absolutely the worst experience ever in my whole life and I forgot to mention the pain every time she does a procedure or even now the two teeth around the implant hurt and she keeps on trying to blame it on other teeth but the other dentist don’t see any problems with the other teeth.

I could have written any one of these posts. Same problem. Thousands of dollars spent, very smelly crown.

I thought it was great at first. After a few years, the smell started and the professionals are looking at me like I'm crazy.

I've been to the dentist several times. They see no infection or any other problems on x-rays. They tell me I need to clean my teeth better. Yes, I floss. Yes, I also use the flossing brushes. Now they tell me to get a waterpik. I don't want a waterpik.

They keep moving the goalposts. Nothing works.

It's like they are telling me things to do to keep me busy. Every time I return to the dentist, they tell me to try something else related to cleaning. All there is to show for it is lots of dental floss, dental brushes, mouthwashes, and a gum that is always sore around the crown. I clean so much that my gums bleed around the crown. Within a couple of hours the bad smell is back.

I've had numerous crowns over my lifetime and none of them have ever been a problem. Put a crown on an implant and it's terrible.

No one seems to want to solve the problem. I'm tempted to go back to the oral surgeon and get the implant take out. I'm supposed to have more implants done. Are you kidding me? I'm supposed to spend more thousands of dollars for more work when we can't solve this problem? What if I get more implants and they end up like this?

No, thanks. I did this to avoid dentures, but dentures are looking like the better option.

hii! oh my gosh i have the SAME EXACT issue with one of my implants. i got one on each side of my bottom teeth. i would describe my issue exactly house you described yours. i take really good care of my teeth and especially my implants. i floss twice a day and even use a water pic night and day.

but my right implant smells so bad especially after i use the water pic, and after i eat and trying to get food out of my teeth with tongue. my dentist has even done an xray to look for decay and he says it looks healthy. but honestly i am at my wits end with the smell and don't know what to do anymore. I'm so glad l'm

not alone i just wish we had the answers cause it makes me feel like i am disgusting

my implant crown cracked so they had to remove the crown to make a mold of my mouth, when they removed the crown it smelt so bad like poo. It must've been the post or inside the crown where its impossible to clean.

Hi,

I'm back with an update. Went to a new dentist earlier this week. He did the usual first visit workup.

When discussing the plan for restoration and me telling him about the smelly crowns that have been leaving a terrible odor and taste in my mouth for several years, he said it is because the crowns were cemented on.

Apparently, a few years back, one of the popular methods for installing crowns on implants was to use cement to bond them to the implant and seal them up against the gum, which was done to make them more sturdy like permanent teeth. He does not like this. It turns out that what happens is the cement seal gradually deteriorates and tiny food particles get inside of the crown.

You cannot clean it out using standard cleaning methods; it is literally inside of the crown. The only way is to remove the crown, clean it, and re-seat it, which is difficult to do because the cemented crowns usually have to be destroyed to get them off.

At the end of the month, he is going to remove the crowns, trying to save them (but probably won't be able to save them). If they can be saved, he will file them down a bit and install them using more traditional methods. Then we can take a few weeks and see how they go.

If they can't be saved, he will replace them with new crowns that have a different configuration, and will be installed like a typical crown. There will be no cement.

Be advised that they have since learned that these cemented crowns can lead to periodontal disease, which is why they are now being discouraged. Thankfully, I have no signs of periodontal disease, but he can see where the gum is irritated because I spend so much time assaulting that area with floss, tape, interdental brushes, and the like to get some relief from the smell and taste.

I'll update next month and keep you informed, but this sounds promising. I hate that I have to go through this expense, and it falls short of the 10-year crown replacement that would be partially covered by insurance. At this point, it is worth it to me to get rid of the fecal smell and the taste that permeates throughout my mouth. I hope this helps other people.

My final update.

The old crowns were removed. At one point, not only were the crowns firmly cemented to the gum line (with the cement starting to crumble and causing odor) but they were very thick crowns - I believe 3mm thick, while most crowns are are 1 mm thick. They had to be drilled off; they couldn't be pulled off manually, and they certainly couldn't be saved and reused.

I definitely get the impression that the crown technology for implants still isn't there. This new dentists says he prefers the crowns with the screw in the bottom, and not cemented crowns. While implants try to emulate a tooth structure, there are major differences between an implant and a real tooth.

At this point I'm seriously considering dentures. I'm bleeding out money for implants and crowns. The crowns will eventually fail and need to be replaced. I still have to get regular cleanings or risk being disowned by my dentist, and replacing those crowns in the future will be expensive. Once I'm on a fixed income, replacing crowns will not be something I want to spend money on. I have visions of being 90 years old and needing to sit in the dentist's chair to get numerous crowns replaced.

No, thank you.

Then, because new crowns will be matched to your existing teeth, and if your existing teeth are no longer young and fairly white, you end up with an expensive mouthful of very not-white crowns. Ugh.

I've lost teeth faster than I can afford more implants. Even after $12,000 of work, I still can't make a good job of chewing food because most of my molars are gone and I have to get them replaced whenever I save up money. Then I have to save up for crowns.

I'm done. I really think it's dentures for me. It would take quite the argument to talk me out of it now.

I’m happy to find this discussion because I have similar problem. I got my implant installed one year ago. I have been wearing a temporary crown for more than a year. recently I had to replace the temporary crown with the permanent one. When the doctor took my composite crown, it started it smell really bad. I’m not sure what the reason is, I believe this is because the food was getting in there since the compost site crown is not as good as the porcelain one. Anyway, I wish everybody here got good results with the treatment of their stinky implants. I will wait to see what I will get in the end. I hope it will not result in peri-implantitis.

p.s. It is very important to use interdental brushes with plastic cover of the metal wire to preserves crown from scratches. and you souls never get under the gum with flosses, just clean around the gum.

Sometimes food can get stuck under an implant denture, which might be smell. If you have an fixed implant denture, try using a water flosser to flush out anything that might be lingering beneath your implant denture.

Did you get a resolution? I am having a similar issue. It started about two months after my crowns were placed on the abutments. I have two left upper implants in the back (molars.) My dentist looked at the area and took xrays and says that the implants are fine. But, I continue to have a smell when I use my oral irrigator. There was a smell when they took the healing caps off the abutments to place the crowns, but they said that is normal and always has a slight smell then due to the tissue/blood that gets trapped after drilling the abutments in. I irrigate my teeth numerous times a day, especially after eating. My gums are in great condition. I am not getting any answers. Feel like the dentist isn't taking me seriously.

Infected dental implant.