If you’ve been living with conventional dentures, the decision to get implants is a major life change, and one you won’t regret! You can now look forward to dentures that don’t slip out of place, and eating foods that you had previously thought off-limits after tooth loss.
Learn more about the steps you can take to prepare for dental implants. Schedule a consultation at our Fresno, CA office: request an appointment online or call 559-297-1294.
Dr. Alex Denes specializes in implant dentistry and can help you change your life with dental implants. However, your journey to more stable and comfortable dentures may take longer than you expect. After implant surgery, most patients need approximately 3-6 months to heal properly before the permanent dentures can be placed. In that time, you will need to focus on being very gentle on your mouth and getting the proper nutrition to allow your body to grown new bone tissue to stabilize the implants.
Before Your Surgery
Before any surgery will take place, your doctor will go over a treatment plan with you, so you understand the proposed timetable. In most cases, implant surgery is a multi-step process, the details of which will vary depending on whether you are getting a full mouth reconstruction, or just one arch. You will need a series of diagnostic procedures, such as digital radiography and cone beam imaging, to help your dentist see clearly what’s going on inside your jaw and make sure the implants get placed in the ideal location for your mouth.
If your jaw bone is too soft or degenerated, you may require bone graft surgery either before or during the implant surgery. This may extend the timetable for getting your permanent dentures, but—as those who use implant dentures will tell you—it’s well worth it!
Implant Surgery, and After
Just as with any oral surgery, you should plan to have someone stay with you around the clock for a couple of days until you feel like yourself again. During your surgery, the titanium implants will be placed in your jaw bone, so you will end up with sutures. Your gums will require very gentle treatment for a few days. You may experience pain, swelling of the face and jaw, and minor bleeding. Take care not to irritate the site of the implants or dislodge your sutures, as this may lead to infection. You will probably want to consume soft foods for a couple of weeks, so take a special shopping trip before your scheduled surgery to look for foods you’ll be able to tolerate and enjoy.
You may be more limited in your dietary choices than usual, but it’s especially important to eat a healthy and varied diet after implant surgery. Your body needs all the help it can get to heal and grow new bone tissue to stabilize your implants. Getting a lot of sleep will also help your body accept and fuse the implants with the jaw.
Temporary Teeth
Regardless of whether you are getting one arch of implants or two, there are temporary prosthetic solutions you can wear as your permanent implants heal and fuse with the bone. If you’ve previously worn dentures, they may still be usable at a certain point after your surgery, so discuss this with your dentist, if this is a special concern. You will need to go without dentures until the soft tissues of your mouth are healed, however, so ask your dentist how long you can expect to go without prosthetic teeth.
Your Permanent Implant Dentures
After your implants have fused with the jaw and facial bones, the next step is abutment placement. Abutments are the small attachments that connect the implant to the dentures. They come up through the gum tissue, so you’ll need a surgical procedure to place them. The healing period for abutment placement is usually under two weeks. Once the soft tissues of your mouth are healed, an impression can be taken of your mouth, so your final implant-based dentures can be fabricated in a dental laboratory.