Oral Surgery

The procedure process can take anywhere from 6 months to a year and depends on your overall treatment plan.

Here’s what you can expect.

Comprehensive Dental Exam

The surgeon will start with a comprehensive dental exam. They will take x-rays and review your medical history to determine if you are a candidate.

Plan Of Care

Once the surgeon has accepted you to be a candidate for dental implant surgery, you will begin preparing for the surgical process to a new healthy and permanent smile.

What you can expect

The process of achieving dental implants is different for everyone. The time it takes will be different as well. Each procedure is an outpatient surgery and is typically performed in stages.

This provides time in between each surgery to heal and prepare for the next stage. Here are the stages of the dental implant process for patients.

• Removing damaged teeth, if applicable
• Jawbone grafting to ensure its strong enough to hold implants
• Placement of subperiosteal or endosteal implants
• Time to heal and allow the bone to fuse with the implant
• Placement of abutment (support for tooth placement)
• Tooth placement

The procedure of getting dental implants is not painful because it is performed under general anesthesia. The mouth will be completely numb.

However, after the procedure is completed, patients report pain. It is comforting to know that the pain mostly reported is mild. One can expect to experience about two weeks of decreasing pain.

It is crucial to follow your dentist’s directions after the procedure to avoid issues such as infection, loosening of the implant, receding gums, and nerve and tissue damage. Any of these problems can result in having to remove the implants.

Adhere to a diet of only soft foods for three to seven days. Also, avoid consuming anything hot to help manage inflammation.

Avoid Excessive Force

Excessive force can cause pain as well as crack or make the dental implant loose. If you are prone to grinding teeth during the night, wear a nightguard.

Avoid vigorous exercise for a week to prevent the application of excessive force.

Clean Regularly

Think of your new implants like regular teeth. They need to be flossed and cleaned twice per day.

Even though they are not natural teeth, not keeping them clean can increase your chances of gum disease, which will cause complications such as receding and loosening gums.