Leukemia: Does Getting Dental Implants Pose a Risk of Complications?

Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is seen mostly in adult males over 50 and it is usually diagnosed without symptoms during a routine blood test.The disease starts with swollen lymph nodes, enlarged spleen and liver, and lastly anemia and infections.Depending on whether the patient is positive for the marker ZAP-70 or not, the survival rate can be more than 25 years, and patients with slowly-progressing disease can be reassured and may not need any treatment during their lifetime.With that said, I would suggest that dental implants should be considered only if the patient desires it to improve his quality of life (for example, replacing missing teeth to restore chewing ability and comfort) and if the disease is NOT in an advanced stage where you have thrombocytopenia, anemia, and the predisposition to infections. I believe that in the early stages, when the Chronic lymphocytic leukemia is untreated, dental implants are ok.Hope this helps. Carlos Boudet, DDS

As a CLL patient myself - I am considering an implant also. I'm chemo naive for 6 years with ALC at 38k and stable. Here's what bothers me about a potential infection - my antibodies have been trending downward since diagnosed and CLL causes other immune system disregulation that makes one prone to infection - you should be asking your patients if they have frequent mouth, urinary tract, sinus etc infections - this is more indicative of an immune system that can't handle an implant.