Do you have damaged or missing teeth that are bothering you when you smile? Are you looking for a safe and permanent solution at the same time?

Dental implants are your best bet to restore your white pearls as a long-term fix.

Advancements in dental practices have made the surgical aspect of the procedure easier and more convenient for the patient. However, some patients still experience post-surgery discomfort and it takes a decent amount of time to heal.

Here are the factors that will play the biggest role in shaping your recovery experience:

● Number of Implants

The amount of time it will take you to recover from the surgery is heavily dependent on the number of dental implants you receive.

For example, if you only receive one implant, then you will have a pretty short recovery time. But if you had multiple or all your teeth replaced with dental implants, then I am sorry to inform you that you will have a much longer time to heal.

However, after bouncing back up again, most patients realize that the time it took them to get better was shorter than what they had in mind at first.

● Bone Grafting

For a handful of reasons, trauma, rot, decay, injury, etc. you may lose some teeth and the bone around your jaw might deteriorate.

It becomes too thin or too fragile that it cannot serve as a solid base for your new teeth to be implanted, which is where a bone graft comes in.

A bone graft is a procedure where your surgeon uses transplanted bone to replace bone loss in the jaw and promote natural bone growth.

Before your surgeon does anything related to the dental implant procedure, they do 3D digital imaging to ensure that your jawbone is in good condition to hold the post for your new artificial tooth.

While an implant might take a short time to heal, a bone graft usually takes between a couple of weeks to three months to get fixed with the jawbone and grow enough new bone to support the new implant.

However, the time frame depends on how much bone grafting is needed. So, a small amount of bone grafting won’t take as long to heal as a larger amount and if you only require minimum bone grafting, your dentist might decide to carry out both surgeries together, which will not extend your recovery time more than a few weeks.

● Sinus Lift

The lack of bone quality and quantity has caused the upper back jaw to be known as one of the most challenging areas to successfully place a dental implant.

So, if you want to get dental implants in this area but you have bone loss, then your surgeon will need to perform a sinus lift, also known as a sinus augmentation surgery.

The main purpose of this surgery is to raise the sinus floor and add bone between your jaw and maxillary sinuses.

There are many techniques to perform this procedure, all of which use bone from your own body for the sinus lift.

Usually, an incision is made to display the bone where a small circle is cut, and the bony piece is pushed upward (augmented) into the sinus cavity.

Then, the space that was created by this process is filled with a bone graft material that you have chosen with your doctor prior to the procedure for lost bone and tissue regeneration.

● Osseointegration

Osseointegration refers to the permanent bond that is formed due to the mechanical anchorage when the bone adheres to the dental implant.

How ready is your body to accept the placement of the plastic screw into your jawbone is what defines the success or failure of the dental implant procedure.

If it assimilates well with your jawbone without any complications, then the osseointegration treatment will go faster and you will experience a way shorter recovery period of dental implants.

The ability for an implant to bond to its host bone is different for every patient, which makes some jawbones take a longer time to exhibit such kind of adaptability.

Although the dental implant process is considered to be a very straightforward procedure, it is not an easy thing at all to assume its healing time. Your doctor will give you a long list of instructions for a quick and seamless recovery, telling you how to keep the implant area clean, what types of food you can eat, and when you can go back to exercising.

The recovery period ranges between 4-6 months and it varies according to the needs and circumstances of every patient. You should make sure to attend all your follow-up appointments so your dentist can tell you whether you are healing well or not and when you can have the crown placed.

Author: Dr. Nabil Mockbil from Swedish Dental Clinic in Dubai Marina