The Maryland Center’s Oral Surgeons are specialists with extensive experience in dental implant procedures. One of the first steps in your experience with our practice will be an initial consultation, during which your doctor will explain what to expect as part of your treatment.
Here is an overview of the process, starting from the day of your surgery.
Placing Your Dental Implants
Your oral surgeon will:
- Provide proper anesthesia so that you feel no pain during the surgery. For single tooth replacement, your Baltimore Oral Surgeon will likely use a local anesthetic. Patients with more extensive procedures may receive twilight or general anesthesia.
- Extract the damaged or decaying teeth that the dental implant procedure is meant to replace. This step is unnecessary if the dental implants are restoring teeth that are already missing.
- Place dental implants to serve as new tooth roots.
- Attach temporary crowns to these tooth roots.
At the end of the surgery, you should have a complete set of teeth and a natural-looking smile.
Recovery and Bonding After Dental Implants
The first week or so following surgery, you will recuperate from your dental implant procedure. Generally, Baltimore patients are surprised at how little pain they have after treatment.
The main reason is that dental implants deal mostly with bone rather than the gum tissue, so there is less of the tingling, swelling, and bruising that comes with a procedure such as wisdom tooth extraction. Most people can manage discomfort with over-the-counter medication such as Tylenol.
The temporary crowns you receive are meant as placeholders. They give you a complete smile as the bone in your jaw grows around your dental implants. This process creates a strong and stable foundation for the crowns that you will eventually have and usually, takes about two months.
Concluding Your Dental Implant Procedure
Once your Baltimore Oral Surgeon confirms that your implants have bonded properly, your general dentist should be able to finish the process by creating new crowns for your implants.
Typically, the general dentist creates a model of your teeth and gums that includes the replacement teeth and sends this model to a dental lab for manufacturing. In about two or three weeks, your crowns will be ready, and the dentist can attach them to the dental implants in place of the temporary crowns.
While this is a typical process, each dental implant procedure varies according to the patient’s needs and goals. If you’d like to know the specific approach your surgeon would take for your treatment, we encourage you to contact our offices.
Visit Maryland Center for Oral Surgery & Dental Implants To Schedule A Consultation
Browse through our blog to learn more about the procedure, what you can expect, and the type of anesthesia required for dental implants.
