Whether you’ve recently had a dental implant placed in Bluffton, or you’re considering dental implants from Dr. Joel Darrah at Buckwalter Dental Care, you may be wondering what you can expect from the recovery process. Will you be in pain? What level of discomfort is normal, and when should you consider contacting your dentist? Learn everything you need to know from this blog post.
At Buckwalter Dental Care, we use minimally-invasive techniques and advanced technology to help speed up the recovery process after your dental implant is placed. However, the placement of an implant is still a serious oral surgery, so you should expect to feel some moderate pain and discomfort. You will also experience bruising, swelling, and bleeding in the treatment area.
Once the numbing and sedation from your surgery wears off, you will likely start to feel some discomfort in the treatment area. If Dr. Darrah has given you a prescription for pain medication, fill it and take it as directed.
Otherwise, you can use over-the-counter pain relievers like Tylenol, Motrin or Aleve to help with the pain. Applying an ice pack to the cheek near your implant site can also help with swelling and discomfort.
Pain from your dental implant usually peaks after about 24-72 hours. After about 3 days, the pain should decrease quite a bit, and you should no longer be bleeding. Bruising, swelling, and other such issues will also begin to fade after between 3-7 days.
If you’ve followed Dr. Darrah’s instructions to care for your mouth while you recover, your mouth will be mostly healed within 7-14 days of your implant being placed. After about a week, you can resume eating your normal diet, and brushing your implant site. You should feel no serious pain or discomfort, though the area may still be a bit swollen or bruised.
After two weeks, your implant site will be completely healed. You should feel no pain or discomfort in the area. Usually, you’ll come in for a consultation with Dr. Darrah around this time, so that he can remove stitches, if necessary, and check on your healing & recovery process.
If you are experiencing serious pain, discomfort, and tenderness around your implant after 2 weeks or longer, this is not normal.
This could indicate that your implant has not properly bonded to the underlying jaw bone due to improper placement, excessive movement while healing, or even a rare metal allergy. Pain and tenderness in the area can also be caused by “peri-implantitis,” an infection of the implant site.
Whatever the reason, you need to get help immediately to get relief from your pain, and to save your implant. Contact a qualified dentist like Dr. Joel Darrah for an emergency appointment right away.
While your implant may cause some mild pain and discomfort, this will fade relatively quickly, and you should feel normal within 1-2 weeks. If you continue to feel pain, make sure to inform Dr. Darrah at your follow-up appointment.
Interested in dental implants in Bluffton? Dr. Darrah is here to help. Find out if you’re a good candidate now. Give us a call at (843) 815-3232 or contact us online to schedule your consultation.
