UNLV
School
of
DENTAL MEDICINE
U
NIVERSITY OF
N
EVADA
,
L
AS
V
EGAS
1001 Shadow Lane * MS 7410 * Las Vegas, NV 89106-4124 * Tel: (702) 774-2533
March 8, 2018 NAME ADDRESS CITY, STATE 89XXX Dear Mr./Mrs. NAME: As Dean of the University of Nevada, Las Vegas School of Dental Medicine
(“
UNLV School of Dental Medicine
”)
, I want to thank you for being a patient in the Faculty Dental Practice (the
“
Faculty Practice
”)
. Your commitment to maintaining good oral health is a wise choice that will provide you with considerable benefits to your overall health both now and in the future. Maintaining open and positive relationships with the community and our patients is important to us. We are sending you this letter because you received a dental implant at the Faculty Practice at the UNLV School of Dental Medicine between 2014 and 2017 from a dentist who is no longer associated with the school. Your implant included the use of a dental healing abutment. A healing abutment is a medical device that is temporarily used during the implant healing process, and later removed when the
tooth replacement or “cap”
is inserted into the hardware previously placed in the bone. A recent review of the placement process for dental implants at the Faculty Practice found that in some, but not all cases, this dentist may have re-used sterilized healing abutments that were manufactured for single use. The re-use of sterilized single-use implant healing abutments may increase the risk for failure of the dental implant itself, because it may cause complications with healing. This means that your dental implant may have to be removed or replaced if it has not already healed properly. T
he manufacturer’s
instruction for this product and the UNLV School of Dental Medicine
’s
best practice is to discard these healing abutments after a single use. At UNLV School of Dental Medicine, we care about the health and wellness of our patients. We do not know whether you received a re-used sterilized healing abutment; however, as a precaution, we want you to be aware of the symptoms of a failing implant. Those symptoms are:
•
Feeling severe pain or discomfort
•
Swelling, redness or inflammation of the gums
•
Loosening or movement of the implant
•
Difficulty chewing If you are experiencing any of these symptoms, or simply wish to have your implant checked free-of-charge, please contact us to schedule an evaluation appointment. If, during this examination, it
March 8, 2018 Page 2
is evident that the implant is failing due to the described reason, we will take steps to rectify the situation at no cost to you. Because the healing abutments were sterilized, we are not aware of any increased risk of the spread of infectious disease. However, if you have concerns please contact us to arrange an appropriate testing plan. I understand you may have questions, concerns, or wish to schedule an appointment. Please reach out to Claudia Nunez, our Patient Care Manager, who can assist you, by calling (702) 774-2533 between 8:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, and on Saturday, March 10, between 9 a.m. and 1 p.m. Sincerely, Karen P. West, DMD, MPH Dean, UNLV School of Dental Medicine Si necesita esta información en español o si necesita hablar con un asistente social, favor de llamar al (702) 774-2533.