Steps You Will Need To Take To Help Your Dental Implant Heal
Choosing to replace a missing tooth with a dental implant is a great choice for both cosmetic and health reasons, but the process of going through the implant can be uncomfortable to experience. If you are planning on getting this procedure completed, you should expect to feel some discomfort afterwards, and here are some of the steps you may need to take to help your implant heal faster and without any problems.
Use ice for swelling and bleeding
When a dentist places an implant into your jawbone, it is a major surgical procedure, and it will cause bleeding and swelling. The bleeding after an implant will normally last for 24 hours, or even a little longer, but the swelling may last longer than this. Swelling is extremely normal with any type of procedure you may have done, as it is the body's natural way of dealing with trauma. You should aim to use ice to help with this, though, and your dentist will give you specific instructions as to how often you should ice your wound. Placing ice on the wound may help reduce the pain you feel, and this may soothe the wound a little bit.
Be cautious with what you eat
The second step your dentist will talk to you about is eating after an implant. While you will not be able to use the implant area of your mouth to bite down on anything, it can be hard to eat food and not allow any of it to touch a certain spot in your mouth. Because of this, the best thing you can do is eat soft foods. If you eat soft foods or liquid foods only, the foods may touch your wound, but they would not poke at it like hard, crunchy foods would.
Swish with a mouth rinse
One other step the dentist might recommend is swishing with a mouth rinse. Your dentist might prescribe a rinse for you or tell you to rinse with warm salt water. In either case, this is a good step to follow as it will help you keep the wound clean. You may need to do this once a day or more, and you should do exactly as your dentist suggests.
When you follow these tips, and any other tips your dentist gives you, you can be certain that your implant will heal as quickly as possible. To learn more about the dental implant procedure, contact a dental clinic today.