How long do dental implants really last?

The titanium post in the bone can outlast you. A well-placed implant that is looked after can keep working for decades. The crown on top wears like anything else and may need replacing after 15 or 20 years, but the implant itself, placed right and maintained, often lasts the rest of your life.

That is the short answer. The longer answer is that the lifespan question is really three quieter questions, and the difference between an implant that fails in five years and one that runs forty is almost never the implant.

First, the foundation. An implant is only as good as the bone holding it. Adequate bone, healthy gums, no active periodontal disease. Those are the AAP's own criteria for a good candidate. When the bone falls short, the AAP describes building it first with procedures like ridge modification or sinus augmentation, rather than forcing an implant into a weak foundation. Early failures often trace back to this step.

Second, the placement. Position, angle, depth, the health of the tissue around it. These decide how well the implant can be cleaned and how the bone responds for the next 30 years. This is surgical judgment, and it is where experience pays. Dr. Baradaran has placed thousands of implants, all Nobel Biocare, from single teeth to full arches.

Third, the one everyone skips: maintenance. Implants cannot get cavities, so patients assume they are invulnerable. They are not. Peri-implant disease, an infection of the gum and bone around the implant, is the leading reason implants fail years after placement, and it works quietly. In 2024 the AAP and the Academy of Osseointegration published a joint consensus on it, and the message fits in one line: implants need professional monitoring and cleaning on a schedule, like teeth.

The implants that last the longest have one thing in common. The people who keep them kept up their periodontal maintenance visits. The failures trace back to a weak foundation or years of skipped checkups, almost never to the hardware.

So, how long do implants last? As long as the foundation was right and somebody keeps watching. Missing a tooth, or wearing an implant nobody has checked in over a year? Both conversations start at the same place: the dental implants page, or (310) 903-7674.

Dr. Sharyar Baradaran, DDS, MS is a periodontist in Beverly Hills and a member of the American Academy of Periodontology. He has placed thousands of dental implants over 32+ years.