Aftercare with Dental Implants

If you're considering dental implants as an option for missing teeth, you've probably done your research and talked to your oral surgeon so you have a good understanding about what to expect before and during the process. But it's also important to understand what type of aftercare is necessary for dental implants to be successful. Keep in mind that this is a surgery and even though it's an oral surgery your mouth will be undergoing some trauma in order to put the implants in place.

Your aftercare is vital to your implant success. Your dentist can't stress enough the importance of good oral hygiene immediately following your surgery and forever after in order to maintain your implants. If you follow your dentist’s advice, your implants can last 20 years or more which is the lifetime of most teeth.

After your dental implants are surgically implanted, it’s normal to experience some swelling and bleeding from your gums near the incision site, however this should go away within 3 to 5 days. It's normal for your mouth to show some swelling around the gums for months after your surgery but it shouldn't be too noticeable and will decrease every day as your mouth heals from the trauma of your surgery. Most patients don't experience very much facial swelling and can return to work within 2 to 3 days after their surgery.

You will likely experience some pain or discomfort as a result of your surgery; however your pain should be minimal and should be able to be treated with prescription medication over the course of the week or so. If your pain is not being controlled by pain medication you need to consult with your dentist and ensure that you don't have any other complications such as an infection occurring.

During the first week or so after surgery you should plan to visit with your oral surgeon in order to monitor the progress of your mouth and to check for any infections. You also won't be able to fully utilize your teeth on anything other than a soft diet for the first week. The first six weeks after surgery you need to be extremely careful with your diet to ensure you don't damage any of your implants. This means you won't be on the total soft diet but you won't be eating any steaks either.

For most patients dental implants are a success because there is a screening process in place before they even have the surgery to ensure poor candidates for failure are screened out. So when patients have implant failure there is usually two reasons behind it. The first reason is poor oral hygiene including a failure to brush and floss regularly and the second reason is smoking which is one of the leading causes of implant failure.

Talk to your oral surgeon and make sure you fully understand what is required of you for the aftercare and how long your recovery period will be in order to be an informed consumer before your surgery.