Dental Implants: Procedure, Recovery, and Tips for Long-Term Care

Millions of Americans are missing at least one tooth (150 million, to be exact), and this number is only going to grow larger thanks to an aging population.

Thankfully, we’re ready for this collective tooth loss with a fantastic solution in the form of dental implants, which rise head and shoulders above other tooth restoration options. As of now, about 6% of the population has an implant, but by 2026, an estimated 23% of Americans will have at least one dental implant.

Here at Baton Rouge Perio, Dr. Barry Biner and Dr. Jenny Herman are doing their parts to get people back to chewing, talking, and smiling with confidence and ease with dental implants, and we can do the same for you.

So, if you’re curious about dental implants and you want to know more about this tooth replacement option, read on.

Why dental implants are superior

Let’s first recap why dental implants are so popular and becoming the first choice in dental restorations. For starters, dental implants come closest to mimicking your real teeth since your tooth is “recreated,” right down to the roots. 

To do this, we insert a metal post into your jawbone, and bone tissue grows around the post, fusing it into place. Then we place a crown over the post.

This means that your new “tooth” will not only enjoy the same stability as your natural teeth, the post will also prevent bone loss, which is common after you lose a tooth. This will help keep your surrounding teeth more stable, as well.

The dental implant procedure

It’s hard to describe a dental implant procedure since they can vary depending on your needs. Since we’re just reviewing basics, let’s take a look at a straightforward single dental implant process.

Once your former tooth is completely cleared out, we make a small incision in your gums and drill into your jawbone. Rest assured, you won’t feel a thing, as we use local anesthesia to keep you comfortable. Then we insert the post into the hole we’ve just created.

When you get home, you can use over-the-counter medications to handle any soreness and ice packs to relieve any residual pain, which should only last a day or two.

Again, this is an example of a simple, single tooth restoration, and there are many variations of this procedure. For example, if you’ve already incurred bone loss and don’t have enough bone to support the implant, we may need to perform a bone graft or a sinus lift before we place an implant. We explain all of this to you, if the need arises.

After we place the implant

After your initial implant procedure, there’s a waiting period as we allow time for osseointegration, which is the process we described earlier in which bone grows around the post, fusing it into place. This can take 2-6 months, or more, depending upon how quickly your bone grows. (We can supply you with a temporary prosthetic tooth during this time, if necessary.)

To determine whether the osseointegration is complete, you return to our office and we load test the post to make sure it's firmly in place and ready to withstand the rigors of chewing.

Once the post has integrated into your jawbone, we place a custom crown, giving you a new tooth that, for all intents and purposes, functions just like your old one (back when it was healthy!)

Taking care of your dental implant

After we place the crown over the implant, there are no special instructions for your new tooth — you take care of your dental implant as you do your other teeth. This means brushing twice a day, flossing once a day, and keeping up with your regular dental exams with us.

That said, remain mindful that your crown isn’t as strong as a natural tooth and can crack, though that doesn't happen often. If it does, the good news is that the post shouldn’t be affected and we simply create and place a new crown.

Again, what we’ve outlined above is in basic terms, but it should give you a better idea about the dental implant process. For a more specific idea about what your dental implant journey might look like, we invite you to contact us at our office in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, to schedule an appointment.