Originally Posted by dbpei

Hello,
I have posted on here many times in the past about odd symptoms involving my jaw, teeth and sinuses. After seeing 4 oral surgeons in the past year, I returned to one recently, who agrees with me that perhaps it is time to remove my titanium dental implant. The surgery is scheduled for early next week. I am praying that I will get some relief, but I know there are no guarantees.

I got the implant in 2008 after a failed root canal. Before phase two of the procedure, my tooth cracked. It had to be extracted. The implant seemed to integrate well with the bone, but I often felt funny when I would bend over, as though I could feel the screw in there. Also, I had a constant runny nose in my left nostril, same side as the implant. I returned to the oral surgeon a few times, but everything seemed ok according to him. A later cat scan of my sinuses shows that the implant is penetrating into my left maxillary sinus with a large cyst above it. This might somehow be related to all of my symptoms, but I am not sure.

2 years after the implant, I developed sudden severe neuro-sensory hearing loss in my ear near the implant. Following the hearing loss, I developed odd neuro symptoms including nystagmus, horrible tinnitus, vestibular damage with 50% loss on that side, internal vibration like feelings in my head and extremities, fatigue and anxiety with some depression, which may have been due to the dramatic change in my life as I knew it. Also, I became extremely sensitive to sound and even normal sounds became very difficult to tolerate. (this is called hyperacusis). My voice sounded like it was coming through a bad set of speakers.

I went to numerous specialists and had MRI's, cat scans, blood work. After several months, I did learn that I had Lyme disease and we were never sure, but thought that perhaps this disease was behind my hearing loss and other symptoms. I was treated with antibiotics for a year, but my symptoms did not really change or improve. Since that time, I have developed more odd sensations in my head near my ear and implant. It often feels as though it is full of fluid, but no fluid is found upon exam. I hear and feel 'sizzling sensations' in vicinity of implant and ear that have now been migrating to other parts of my skull. It is very scary.

I have intermittent jaw pain, dental pain, and the tinnitus fluctuates along with the sizzling/buzzing sensations. A theory is that the metals in the implant may be corroding and causing some type of auto-immune reaction in my body. I have a metallic taste in my mouth and often have the sensation that some type of liquid is draining into my mouth from the implant area. I also have high levels of heavy metals in my blood.

X-rays do not show decayed bone, but I did lose a tooth adjacent to the implant in 2013 due to infection, which was discovered by a fistula on roof of my mouth. This tooth had been root canaled. It was a very good oral surgeon who did the extraction and he tells me he debrided the bone and tissue thoroughly.

I thought it might be helpful to others to post about my experience in case I can help anyone else here with similar symptoms/history. Thank you for all of your education, Bryanna. Hopefully, I am making the right decision. I will write after the surgery is over.