Looking after your dental implant

What to expect after implant placement

The post is placed under local anesthetic, so the area stays numb for a while after you leave. Most people say the day after feels like having a tooth pulled. An ordinary pain reliever, taken as the label directs, is usually enough for a day or two.

Follow the instructions you are given for your own case. The general rules for the first few days are these:

• Leave the area alone: no poking at it with your tongue or a finger, and no pulling your lip out to look.
• Some oozing on the first day is normal. If it bleeds, fold clean gauze over the area and bite firmly for twenty minutes without checking.
• Hold a cold pack against your cheek, on and off, for the first day, to keep the swelling down.
• Eat soft food, chew on the other side, and skip hot drinks until the numbness has worn off.
• From the day after, rinse gently with warm salt water, especially after meals.
• No smoking. It slows healing and lowers the success rate of implants.

Eating and brushing while it heals

Bone takes several months to fuse to the post, and the post needs to be left alone while it does. Keep hard, crunchy and chewy food away from that side until we tell you it is ready for normal chewing.

Keep brushing the rest of your mouth as usual, and go gently near the implant for the first few days.

If a temporary tooth is covering the space while it heals, go easy on it. It is there so the gap does not show, not for biting into an apple.

Cleaning around an implant for the long run

Once the tooth is on, the routine looks familiar. Brush twice a day with a soft brush angled toward the gum line, and clean between the implant and its neighbors every day. Floss, small interdental brushes and water flossers all work, and the one you will actually use is the right one.

The reason it matters: the gum around an implant can become inflamed and lose bone much as it can around a natural tooth, and bone is what holds the implant in. It tends to start quietly, with a little bleeding when you brush.

Bridges and dentures on implants need a little more:

• Under an implant-supported bridge, floss cannot slip between the joined teeth, so clean underneath with a floss threader or a water flosser.
• An implant-retained denture comes out to be cleaned. Brush the denture, then the gum and the tops of the implants too.
• The clips that hold a denture wear with use and need replacing from time to time, so mention it if the denture starts to feel loose.

Check-ups and cleanings with an implant

Keep up your cleanings and exams. At each one the gum around the implant is checked along with the rest of your mouth, and when one is due, an X-ray shows the level of the bone around it. That is how a problem is caught before you can feel it.

If you have been treated for gum disease, periodontal maintenance visits protect an implant as much as they protect your teeth.

We also check your bite. If you clench or grind, tell us, because that puts heavy force on the implant and the crown on top.

When to call about your implant

Some soreness in the first few days is expected. Call us if any of these happen, whether it is the week after placement or years later:

• Pain or swelling that gets worse after the first few days instead of better.
• A bad taste, pus or a fever.
• Gum around the implant that bleeds, looks red or puffy, or has pulled back.
• A crown that feels loose, or an implant that seems to move.
• A chipped crown, or a bite that suddenly feels different.

If it cannot wait

Call anytime. Appointment scheduling is available 24/7, and treatment happens here in Pearisburg during office hours, Monday to Friday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Tell whoever answers what has happened and they will get you seen.

Go to an emergency room instead for bleeding that will not stop after firm pressure, swelling that is closing an eye or spreading down the neck, difficulty breathing or swallowing, or a suspected broken jaw. Emergency care covers what to do in the meantime for other problems.

Questions patients ask