Dental Implants

Dental Implants – Post-Treatment Care

If you have had your wisdom teeth taken out, you will already be familiarized with the feeling after an implant surgery. The first three days after your implants are placed; you will most likely feel somewhat sore. Your mouth and cheek might be swollen, your jaws might not open as wide as usual, and light bleeding could occur during the first 24 hours. We will prescribe you adequate medication and painkillers, so make sure you follow our indications precisely. You should also cool the affected area of your face with ice pads during the first three days. On day 4, you switch to hot pads which you apply every four hours for 15 minutes.

Diet

The first day, ingest only cold or lukewarm liquids, then follow a soft diet for three more days. From day 4 or 5 you should be able to eat normally, but avoid chewing with the parts of your jaw that contain the implants. Skip tobacco, alcohol as well as carbonated drinks for two weeks, avoid greasy, acidic and spicy food.

Hygiene

Brush your teeth normally with a soft toothbrush, making sure you do not go too rough over the wound. Avoid spitting and rinsing your mouth too often, as these practices will dissolve the blood clot that forms naturally to support the healing process.

Activities

Avoid touching the implant area with your tongue or fingers. Make sure you sleep with your head elevated the first night after your implant surgery. Stay out of the sun and relax, you should not exercise or make any great physical effort as this might lead to bleeding. In a nutshell: The swim in the sunny pool area will have to wait for a few days.

If bleeding occurs, press an absorbent gauze on the affected area for 30 minutes straight without changing the gauze nor talking. In case the bleeding does not stop or you feel that it is too strong, get in touch with our staff immediately.

What are my options to replace a missing tooth?

There are several ways to replace a missing tooth. A simple solution consists in fabricating a partial denture. Partial dentures look like orthodontic retainers, usually carrying one or two teeth. The denture may also be attached to other teeth using wire clips.

Another option is a dental bridge. Bridges are usually fixed, stable, and feel like natural teeth. However, you need to prepare (i.e. grind down) the two neighboring – otherwise healthy – teeth in order to carry the bridge. This can lead to problems like periodontal disease in the long-run.

Dental implants are the best substitute for a missing tooth. They are artificial roots for teeth, screwed into the jawbone to carry crowns, bridges etc. Usually they are made of titanium because of its compatibility with human bones and tissues: Within a few months, the implant merges biologically with the human body (osseointegration) and thus feels like a natural tooth root. Implants can be used as replacement of single teeth or as pillars to support long bridges, i.e. with only 2-4 implants, an entire upper or lower denture can be supported. Dental implants, if taken good care, have a lifespan of 20 years or more.

Please note that implants are not fit for everyone. Among other factors, ideal bone condition is required. Should bone grafts and/or sinus lifting be required for implants placement, additional time may be needed to complete the treatment.

Do dental implants carry any risk? Are they suitable for everyone?

Your dentist will perform a thorough examination of your teeth, gums, jaws and jawbone before recommending dental implants. Implant placement is a multi-step procedure: If necessary, remaining teeth stumps are extracted to make room for the implants.

The implant is surgically inserted under the gums and allowed to fuse with your jawbone. This healing process (osseointegration) takes up to 6 months. Once the area heals and the implant is stable, it is ready to support a dental crown or denture. Good candidates for dental implants have adequate jawbone volume and quality. In general, you must be in good health, and your body must be able to heal normally. Patients who don’t have enough bone to support implants need a bone graft. At our clinic, we use synthetic bone to make the implant site dense enough for implant insertion. Before surgery, your dentist will determine if you need bone graft.

Do you place so-called immediate implants?

In order to avoid confusion about two very similar terms, we would like to distinguish between.

a) Immediate placement of implants: This is the practice of combining two dental surgeries in one: extracting weak teeth or stumps and placing implants on the fresh extraction site the very same day. Whether immediate placement of implants is possible or if the patient should rather have the wound heal first depends on many factors, including bone density and the ability of your body to heal. It must be evaluated at our clinic.

b) Immediate loading of implant-supported restorations: In some cases, the final tooth restoration (e.g. crown or bridge) is placed on top of an implant the same day of the implant surgery. It is traditionally advised to wait several months after placing an implant to allow for the bone to heal and integrate the dental implant (osseointegration); this reduces the risk of implant failure. During that time you would have a provisional denture. If your individual situation (bone and gum condition, your bite, commitment to soft diet etc.) allows for immediate loading of implant-supported restoration, we can place the restoration the same day you receive your implant.

What are mini implants?

Mini implants are actually longer than conventional implants, although their name suggests differently. They are slightly cheaper and provide more stability shortly after the surgery, but have a higher risk of failure and do not last as long. In the long-run, you are better off getting regular implants.

How long will my implants/crowns/dentures last? Do you offer a warranty to your patients?

In general, dental restorations like crowns, bridges and dentures, should last a minimum of five years, with good care much longer. If bad habits like smoking or chewing on hard items are harmful to natural teeth, they are even more so to artificial teeth, so be considerate.

In the case of bridges and dentures, over time you will feel them looser than at the beginning; this is a normal effect of natural shrinkage of bone and tissue structure due to missing teeth. So your denture will have to be adjusted professionally, by our team or a qualified dentist of your choice. Depending on the anchor system used to attach your denture to your mouth, there may be other parts that need regular maintenance or exchange, like some rubber parts in implant abutments. How long your denture will last depends to some extent on the material you chose, but even more so on the care you give it on a daily basis.

Implants replace your natural tooth root and are meant to stay in your mouth forever, and in many cases they do. However, just as we may lose natural teeth to infections or accidents, the same can happen to your implant. In general, implants should last a minimum of 5 years. If you lose your Nobel Biocare implant (which is our preferred brand) within the first 10 years, we will put another one in at no cost.