Dental implant?

[Heath21]

Hello all

I have had itp for over 4 years with many ups and downs. I am currently self injecting Nplate weekly with platelets fluctuating within wide limits, but I feel ok apart from fatigue.

Before itp hit me like a ton of bricks, I had a dental implant. Now it looks like I shall lose the tooth next to it. Does anyone know if there is a problem having an implant or should I go for just extraction when the moment comes? Dentists I have spoken to do not seem overly concerned, but is that out of ignorance??

I’d be grateful for hearing other people’s experience.

[sharroN42]

There is so little known about ITP it's not surprising if dentists don't know about it's ramifications. My GP doesn't and I'm not sure my haematologist does. I have had dental implants and now wonder if ITP happened around the same time.

[Heath21 in reply to sharroN42]

Thanks. Interestingly my itp started just after I had my implant.

[CarryonwithITP]

I have had 2 dental implants for about 10 years. My ITP was diagnosed nearly 2 years ago (although I think my platelets were low for about 6 months prior to diagnosis before they completely sunk to 3). Two years ago, one of my implants fell out, out of the blue, but in the interim, before I could get an appointment with my implant dentist, I was diagnosed with ITP. The implant dentist said that he could not replace the implant with platelet levels so low. Annoyingly, I now think my gum is shrinking around the other implant and that it may not be as secure as it was. My teeth have always been very good, but since my diagnosis of ITP, my other NHS dentist seems reluctant to do anything in my mouth, especially as I am sure I have a hole in a back tooth which he denies. Because of this I am contemplating changing NHS dentist. However, I do know that platelets do have to be at a certain level before it is safe for a dentist to carry out any work in your mouth, and I believe that with ITP they may prefer to do any major dental work in a hospital because of our special problem. At present, I do not have a problem with the teeth next to my implant(s). I wish you luck.

[Heath21 in reply to CarryonwithITP]

Thanks. The dentist who did the implant 4 years ago seems happy to extract neighbouring tooth and do new implant as long as platelets are over 50. Then I spoke to my new nhs dentist who is currently training to do imp,ants. He brought up the possibility of rejection and spoke about using bone marrow to counteract that. That is what made me raise the question. I shall speak to my haematologist when I see her.