Tips on Proper Care of Dental Implants

To cover the unpleasing gaps between your teeth after losing them, you look for replacement options to close the gaps and visit the dental office near you for suggestions. The practitioners at the office recommend dental implants as the best solution currently available for replacing missing teeth.

After hearing the recommendation and making some inquiries, you start to wonder how you will go through the entire procedure requiring approximately a year to complete before you can have natural-looking and feeling-replacement teeth.

We admit that the procedure to get a dental implant is intensive, lengthy, and expensive. However, this article suggests some tips to correctly care for your dental implants when making substantial investments in your smile and overall health to overcome the problem. Please persist in reading to learn more about the care you need to provide for dental implants.

Dental implants require surgery to place titanium posts in your jawbone and recover from the procedure before you can have your artificial teeth. However, caring for your dental implants starts before your surgery. Let us take you through the different stages of dental implant placement and care.

Pre-Surgery

You must be in good oral and physical health to qualify as a candidate for dental implants in New Port Richey, FL. If you are affected by any immunosuppressive conditions that might impact your healing, the providers negate your candidature for the placement. You become ineligible for dental implants if you are a smoker or use tobacco products because tobacco is harmful to your overall health besides the implants and can lead to implant failure.

During your first appointment with the dentist in New Port Richey, you undergo a comprehensive exam providing x-rays and CT scans to help the dentist determine whether you have sufficient jawbone to support the placements. If you have an inadequate jawbone, you must undergo bone grafting or sinus lifts for jawbone augmentation. The dentist creates a tailor-made treatment plan explicitly for you before scheduling your appointment for dental implant placement.

Post-surgery: Care during Healing

You receive the dental implants from the dentist 34653 in an outpatient procedure requiring about an hour or more, depending on how many implants you want to replace your missing teeth. The surgery is performed under local or general anesthesia, depending on your dental anxiety level. However, you must arrange for transportation to take you home after your procedure. The anesthesia leaves you groggy and incapable of operating vehicles or machinery.

You must also take a few days off from work or personal life to rest and recover from the surgical procedure. Implants need three to six months to integrate with your jawbone. However, you must care for your mouth by maintaining appropriate dental hygiene and following your provider’s post-surgery instructions to ensure you don’t develop complications to require treatments from the emergency dentist near you.

Having crunchy and hard foods remains challenging in the days following dental implant placement. Therefore you must arrange for soft foods that don’t require much chewing after getting dental implants placed. In addition, you must select nutritionally beneficial foods such as yogurt, applesauce, smoothies, mashed potatoes, scrambled eggs, et cetera to have after getting dental implants. Having plenty of water keeps you hydrated, and avoiding carbonated beverages and alcohol is recommended by Dr. Mitul Patel during your recovery.

Practicing excellent dental hygiene habits is a requirement you cannot overlook because dental implant placement requires incisions in your gums that might become infected if you don’t care for your mouth appropriately.

Post-Surgery: Long-Term Care

Dental implants don’t need special attention during the long-term besides maintaining excellent dental hygiene by cleaning your teeth twice daily, flossing them at least once, and getting six monthly exams and cleanings from your dentist.

You must ensure that you floss using the techniques recommended by your dentist to ensure plaque buildup doesn’t develop on your natural and implanted teeth. Plaque is the primary reason for gum disease and implant failure. If you find flossing challenging, you can use an interdental flosser to eliminate plaque between your teeth to prevent gum disease.

If you follow your dentist’s instructions to the word, you can rest assured the implants will remain in your mouth for life, and the artificial tooth will serve as your natural tooth.

If you decide to get dental implants to replace your missing teeth, you must follow all the instructions provided by Dental Arts New Port Richey to ensure your implant placement surgery is successful and you confront no complications with the placements.