New Dental Implant Placement – Appropriate Aftercare

The first few weeks and months after a new dental implant are especially important for treatment success.

Having made the decision to have a dental implant to replace a missing tooth, it makes sense to make sure that the procedure is a success. While much of this depends on the skills of the implant dentist, the aftercare in the weeks and months following is also critical to ensure that they successfully bond with the bone and give you many years of a high quality replacement tooth.

The success rate for dental implants is very high when placed by skilled practitioners such as our own Chelmsford implant dentists. Most failures occur when patients ignore the aftercare advice of the dentist and allow problems to arise. In today’s blog, we are going to take a look at what you can do to avoid issues with your new implants.

Allow time to recover

One thing that you can do before you have your procedure is to book some time from work. Having an implant placed is now more common than before but it is still an invasive procedure and also a longer one than many other treatments. There may be some bruising and swelling too and we advise that you rest as much as possible for a day or so afterwards. This will help with your recovery and, along with following the advice in the next section, especially for the first few days, will help get your new implant off to a healthy start.

Ease into eating carefully

A fully bonded dental implant is extremely secure and will withstand the same stress and strains that a healthy tooth would, and sometimes even more so. Initially though, it is critical that the implant is allowed to fuse with the bone into which it has been placed. This means that you should avoid putting stress on it as much as possible, especially in the very early days. No chewing at all should be done with this replacement tooth and we recommend that you have liquid foods only for a short while before moving to softer foods such as mashed potatoes. You can then gradually increase the variety of what you eat until, after approximately three months, you can return to your normal diet. The implant dentist at Blue Sky Dental will be happy to advise on how to plan your eating at various stages of the healing and bonding process.

Maintain good oral health

Although a dental implant can’t decay in the way that a natural tooth can, it is still vulnerable to some issues such as periodontitis and peri-implantitis, both advanced forms of gum disease and of the surrounding tissues. When this happens, it is likely that the implant will work itself loose and may even fall out and fail.

Initially, you will need to follow the dentist’s advice on cleaning as brushing around the implant will be out of the question for a short while. Cleaning in the earliest stages usually involves the tipping (not swilling) of a warm saline solution around the implant in order to minimise the bacteria in that area. Gradually, you will be able to introduce brushing with a soft brush before returning to your normal routine. Unlike dentures, fully bonded dental implants can be cleaned exactly as you should your natural teeth.

Avoid ‘violent’ exercise

For a short time after your implant placement, you should rest as mentioned earlier. If you are an active person though, you may be itching to get back to your favourite sport or exercise. It is important that you exercise caution here. It takes three months or so for the implant to be fully bonded with the bone and any ‘violent’ exercise can cause it to become loose. By ‘violent’ we don’t mean boxing, although that would be terrible for a new implant of course, but also any exercise that involves potential impact, such as football, or even running as the jarring of the body can also affect the implant and potentially cause it to loosen. If you want to keep fit when you start to exercise again, choose something gentle initially such as walking, swimming or cycling on level ground (not off track riding). Once your implant is fully integrated, you can return to your normal activities.

Lay off the smoking and alcohol

As mentioned above, gum diseases are a serious threat to a dental implant at any stage of its life. We strongly recommend that you quit smoking and also avoid excess consumption of alcohol. Both of these products are major contributors to gum disease and quitting these habits will greatly improve the chances of having a healthy tooth implant for a long time and will improve your oral health in general.

Stick to your check up appointments

Providing that they look after their implants, most patients of Blue Sky Dental have a successful experience. Things can go wrong though so it is important that you attend any check ups that you are booked for. Your dentist will want to monitor your new implant to ensure that it is progressing as it should. You should also contact our clinic if you have any worries or concerns about it as soon as you can.

If you would like to discover more about our high quality teeth implants, we are happy to arrange a free non clinical consultation where you can learn more about them and have any questions that you might have answered by a member of our implant team. If you would like to arrange yours, please give our Chelmsford dental clinic a call today on 01245 211070.