Once you choose to get dental implants, you may feel excited about treatment; that’s a natural reaction. Still, don’t forget to consider a crucial question: How long does dental implant surgery take? Addressing that concern would help you adjust your schedule. For that reason, your Port Charlotte dentist is here with the proper details. Read on to learn about dental implant surgery, how long it takes, and how to recover afterward.
What Does Dental Implant Surgery Involve?
To know how long your surgery will take, you should first learn what it involves. That context helps you see why treatment needs the time it does.
Dental implant surgery is made up of several key steps. Firstly, it numbs your mouth with a local anesthetic to make treatment painless; you’ll only feel a slight pressure as it proceeds. The surgery then makes a small incision in your gums to create room for the implant. From there, the treating dentist will place the implant and close the gum incision. They’ll follow up by placing a protective cap over the post.
How Long is the Actual Surgery?
Having learned implant surgery’s steps, you can see that it’s not an instant process. A dentist and their team need a decent amount of time to perform it.
Most implant surgeries take 1-2 hours to place a single implant, though the exact timing can vary. The work will go longer if you plan to get two or more implants. The treating dentist can also use a CT scanner to speed things up, creating digital images that map the placement sites.
To be honest, the implant surgery is one of the shorter phases of treatment. You’ll need a few weeks after the placement for your initial recovery. Once that’s over, the implants will take 3-6 months to fully fuse with your jawbone.
How to Recover from the Surgery
While it takes time to heal from a dental implant surgery, you can speed up the recovery process. Just use the following tips and tricks:
- Don’t Overexert Yourself – For a day or two after your surgery, please rest and keep your head elevated. Strenuous physical activity would delay or even undo the healing.
- Be Careful with Your Implant(s) – Please don’t touch or chew with the implant site for a few weeks. As needed, you should also ice it to reduce swelling.
- Eat Soft Foods – Only eat soft foods while you recover; they won’t irritate the treatment site.
To confirm how long your own implant surgery will take, consult your dental provider. They’ll gladly explain the timetable and help you prepare!
About the Practice
Caring Way Dentistry is based in Port Charlotte, FL. Led by Dr. Bryan Villescas, our practice dedicates itself to giving patients healthy and beautiful smiles! That means we offer preventive, cosmetic, and restorative treatments tailored to your unique oral needs. Among these offerings, our team even provides in-house dental implant surgery that can restore your grin! For more details or to book a visit, you can reach us on our website or by phone at (941)-627-9900.