5 Tips for Fast Healing After Full Dental Implants
Thinking of full dental implants? It’s a surgery that can change your life for the better. Here are our top five tips for fast healing. Read on and get well.
If you have previously suffered from dental problems and missing teeth, and you have taken the step to get dental implants – we want to congratulate you!
Full dental implants are a big deal and a leap towards getting your smile back and keeping your dental health in line.
Here at Manalese Dental, we’ve prioritized keeping our patients up to speed on everything they need to know about many different dental topics. It’s why we keep up with our blog and constantly start conversations with our patients once they come in.
So we’ve talked about dental implants and why they can turn your oral health around. Now we want to talk to you about how you can best help yourself heal after dental implant surgery and what you should expect!
Dental Implants
Dental implants are a method of giving you back your smile. We use top-of-the-line metal in your implants to create a stable foundation for your implants to use.
This restorative procedure allows patients to avoid future problems, and there are a few different types of dental implants that your dentist will discuss with you.
Full dental implants and you
Getting dental implants is a life changing event. You’ve taken control of your dental hygiene and taken the steps to getting back a fully functional mouth.
These implants are in many ways easier to take care of than natural teeth, and you can prevent further damage to remaining teeth with the placement of implants. And, depending on how well you treat your dental implants, they can last a lifetime!
Why you made the right choice
Without dental implants, those who have damaged or missing teeth may experience a lot of unpleasant side-effects.
Heart disease has been linked to poor dental health and missing teeth. Other diseases like diabetes and cancers have also shown similar links.
When you don’t use a dental device to preserve your teeth or serve as your teeth, you can also experience facial deformities as your face sinks in as well as TMJ.
How to heal
Many people experience anxiety before a dental implant procedure, but your dental team should be doing a good job of calming you down with information and empathy! But what about after the procedure?
Your team should, firstly, make sure that you’re comfortable and not in pain. Over the coming weeks, though, you will be going through the healing process.
To help you understand what that process will be like, we’ve written up our top 5 tips to make your healing process a smooth one!
Don’t smoke
Not only can smoking or chewing tobacco lead to cancers, it can also cause complications during your healing process.
Smoking actually hinders your healing process because you are not giving your body enough oxygen all the time to heal properly! If you smoke after a surgery like full dental implants, you risk slowing your healing and prolonging the process.
Smoking can also discolor your implants as well as damage the growing gum around the implants.
Similarly, alcohol can damage your healing tissue and hinder your ability to heal! It’s best to avoid alcohol for at least two weeks after your surgery.
Eat foods high in healing nutrients
After a major surgery like getting full dental implants, it’s important to feed your body properly. Studies have even shown that people who do not eat enough or get the right types of food have weaker immune systems.
When you don’t eat properly and have a weaker immune system, it’s possible that your surgery site will be a way for infection to get inside your body through the extended healing period. We recommend taking special care of your diet throughout your healing period.
Track your diet and be sure to get everything you need, like protein, calcium, and key vitamins.
Our team recommends patients to try broccoli because it is high in calcium and, when you put it in an omelet, you can get protein too! All in a tasty breakfast. Fruit and veggie smoothies and protein shakes are also great ways to better your diet while you heal.
Rinse with warm salt water
If you’ve ever had a tooth removed or experienced some problems with your gums, it’s likely that your dentist had you do salt water rinses throughout the day as you heal.
It turns out that salt water is great at gently removing bacteria from your mouth without irritating your surgical sites.
You can also thank these salt rinses for their healing abilities since it contains nutrients needed in our bodies!
Cold compresses
It’s common to experience swelling or bruising after dental implant surgery. This is why we recommend that you use cold compresses after your surgery to promote healing and to diminish discomfort and swelling.
Taking your compress and holding it gently to the swollen area for 15 minutes can help your comfort levels. You will want to take turns with the cold compress by holding it on for 15 minutes then leaving it off for another 15.
You can repeat this cycle for the first few days post-op in combination with your other medications.
Rest
This is perhaps the most important tip we have about how you can help your healing process.
You need to rest!
Pushing your body beyond its limits after a surgery is not a good thing. You will want to listen to your body and rest when you need to. If you feel like you need to sleep for hours after your surgery, do it! It’s like a mini-vacation where you can do anything you want to relax.
Skip the gym and avoid strenuous exercise.
This will let your body rest and recover, but it also decreases your chance of moving blood clots from the surgery in your mouth or disturbing the implant sites in any way. When a blood clot gets moved, it causes what’s called a dry socket. This complication is more common after tooth extractions, but this can also be a part of your dental implant procedure.
So, all in all, kick back and relax! Rest assured knowing that full dental implants are the right step towards bringing back your confidence and oral health.