Things to Avoid after Dental Implant Surgery
Dental implants are incredibly durable and excellent replacements for lost teeth. The implants made from titanium are embedded into the jawbone to function as your artificial tooth roots. As you heal from the surgical process, the implants integrate with the surrounding bone in osseointegration. Osseointegration helps the dental implant gain strength and allows it to support different dental prosthetics.
The variety of dental prosthetics you receive will depend on how many teeth you have lost and your treatment goals from the cosmetic industry to restore your mouth functionality and aesthetic appearance. Dental implants support dental crowns, bridges, or dentures.
You can also have dental implants for full mouth rehabilitation accomplished by getting full mouth dental implants. This technique helps support entire artificial teeth in one jaw. Although some implant procedures can give you teeth in a day the titanium posts need time to heal after placement in the jaw. In reality, dental implants aren’t durable until they have osseointegrated with the surrounding bone. Therefore after getting dental implants placed, you must avoid a few things as detailed below to ensure successful healing of the implants.
Things to Avoid after Dental Implant Placement Surgery
Foods
To ensure your dental implants heal correctly, the best dentist in Coquitlam recommends that you have soft foods temporarily during your recovery. It indicates that you must avoid hard, chewy, or sticky foods that can fragment into sharp pieces. After your procedure, you must avoid spicy and acidic foods irritating the surgical site. Warm or hot foods are also better avoided to prevent excessive bleeding. You can start eating more complex foods as your mouth begins to recover.
Maintaining Excellent Dental Hygiene
You might be using electric toothbrushes and water flossers for plaque removal that might have caused deep tooth decay to need treatments from the endodontist in Coquitlam, BC. However, after getting dental implants placed in your jawbone, you must avoid using these devices for some time after implant surgery. Instead, you can use a manual toothbrush to rest gently around the surgical site to prevent damaging it. You can start using your electric devices after you have recovered and your dentist permits you to use them.
Avoiding Tobacco, Alcohol, and Caffeine
Tobacco, alcohol, and caffeine have adverse effects on the healing process of dental implants. You are advised not to smoke if you are accustomed to this habit for at least two months after the surgical procedure because your blood vessels constrict and also because you become a victim of gum disease, a primary cause of tooth loss in Canada.
After your surgery to receive tooth replacement solutions, you might think of having a drink to celebrate the occasion. Unfortunately, you must abstain from alcohol for at least 72 hours after your surgery because the substance can slow osseointegration essential for providing your implants the stability needed.
In addition, you must also avoid caffeine during the initial three weeks after your surgery because it can cause excessive bleeding and slow healing.
Can You Use Mouthwash after Tooth Implant?
If you are accustomed to using mouthwash after completing your dental hygiene practices, the dentist providing dental implants suggests you stop using over-the-counter mouthwash brands because most contain at least 20 percent alcohol harmful to the surgical process.
While you can continue brushing and flossing gently, the dental office suggests you use warm salt water rinses as a mouthwash several times during the day during your recovery. If required, the dentist might recommend prescription mouthwashes to help freshen your breath as you recover from dental implant placement.
Dental implants are excellent solutions to replace one or several missing teeth. However, they require surgery and a lengthy healing period with proper care before you can receive your artificial custom-made dental crowns mounted over them. In addition, laxity during the healing process can delay getting your replacement solution to leave you with gaps in your smile.
The things to avoid might appear stringent to make you feel whether you chose appropriately when selecting dental implants for your missing teeth. However, when you realize that implants are the only solution that remains with you for life without ever needing treatments for tooth decay or discoloration because the dental crowns over the implant are created from porcelain that doesn’t attract decay or discoloration. So long as you guard against gum disease, which can occur due to plaque buildup on your gum line, you can rest assured you have a stable and durable replacement solution for your missing teeth with dental implants.
The Tri-Cities Dental Specialist providing dental implants recommends the abovementioned things patients cannot do when receiving dental implant surgery. If you have lost your teeth and are considering dental implants, kindly review the things you must stay away from before getting dental implants from this practice as durable replacement solutions for your teeth.