Preparing For Your Dental Implant Procedure

A Birmingham dentist discusses how to maximise the benefit of dental implants.

Having a dental implant placed can, understandably, seem like a very big deal to someone who has not experienced this before. Some people are a little afraid beforehand, but highly delighted with the results after the procedure is complete.

A number of patients at our dental practice near Birmingham have said that they spent a lot of time on the internet researching dental implants before going ahead and whilst they found a lot of information about the procedure itself, they found very little about the best way to prepare for it. With this in mind, we thought that it would make a useful addition to our blog and we hope that the following tips will be of use to our patients.

Health

Dental implants have proven, over the years, to have a very high success rate indeed. Whilst this is already the case, it is possible to increase the success rate further by keeping your overall health in good shape. Whilst a dental implant can be placed for most patients with relatively few problems, issues may possibly arise during the osseointegration period with patients who have certain health issues such as diabetes. In some cases, illnesses such as these can slow down the recovery period and cause infections to take hold or even to prevent the implant from fully fusing with the bone in the jaw. If you have diabetes, or any other serious medical condition, we will ask you to raise this with the implantologist at our Birmingham practice who will advise before making a final decision about dental implant placement.

In general though, by keeping reasonably fit and in good shape, you will also contribute to the success of the procedure.

Negative Factors

The big ‘no no’ surrounding dental implants is smoking. This is absolutely key as smoking will restrict the blood vessels that carry blood to the area of the procedure and heal it quickly and effectively. Smoking will also cause a dry mouth which then creates the perfect environment for all the unhealthy bacteria that will attack the area of the procedure, to thrive.

By smoking, you will, in effect, be putting your new dental implants at a much greater risk of failure. We always instruct patients not to smoke for at least a period of time either side of the procedure, usually around three months. Stopping smoking permanently, of course, is even more preferable.

By keeping yourself reasonably fit and avoiding smoking, and excessive drinking which has similar effects, you will be giving your dental implants an excellent chance of providing you with trouble free replacements for any lost or missing teeth for many years to come.

To find out more, please give us a call at our Birmingham dental practice on 0121 323 4492.