After dental implant surgery – the anesthetic effect will wear off, and your implants may hurt. Swelling and pain after an implant procedure are considered normal. Redness and swelling in the jaw bone, which had surgery can last for 4 to 7 days.
How Much Dental Implant Pain Is Normal?
During this initial stage of dental implant healing, some degree of pain occurs and later on subsides slowly. The severity of dental implant pain that you experience is dependent on various factors:-
1) Your General Anxiety Level
The intensity of pain varies and depends on any complications during the surgical procedure or additional surgeries such as tooth removal or bone grafting procedures. The rule of thumb is the larger the operation – the more pain and swelling you will feel.
- Pain can be managed by over the counter pain medications or pain medications that are prescribed by your implant surgeon.
- The soreness should subside in 3 to 5 days, and the pain must subside in 7 to 10 days. Soreness is a common phenomenon that can be encountered post-surgically for ten days. Soreness occurs in all kinds of surgeries. The pain must always subside.
- If the pain continues – make sure to return to the office – as it indicates implant failure. Implant failure can occur due to many causes such as Infection, Improper placement of a dental implant, long healing cap, nerve impairment, loose implant, bone burn, gum pressure induced by a temporary bridge.
2) Swelling – The presence of swelling may indicate infection, and you must contact your implant dentist. If there is an infection, antibiotics will control it.
3) Healing– Healing is not dependent on the severity of pain that you encounter. But, it seems people respond better by experiencing less soreness and pain, which makes the healing process seem faster compared to others.
Dental Implant Infection is the Major Cause of Implant Failure
Dental implant infection is the main responsible factor of Implant failure; it is associated with pain, swelling with redness, unpleasant smell, and unpleasant taste. Sometimes, the nerve can get affected, and there will be no pain. However, swelling with redness implies implant infection, and it requires attention from an implant dentist.
If left untreated, the infection from gums can spread deep into the bone resulting in bone loss and complications. Disease and pain can be alleviated with antibiotics and other medications as it occurs due to substandard fixtures, oversized crowns, loose implant, or loose healing cap.
What is a Loose Healing Cap?
The healing cap covers the top of the implant during the gum healing stage, and when the attachment of the crown, it is later removed during a crown placed on the implant.
This healing cap can get loose due to the healing process, causing gum irritation and soreness, which can be managed by refitting the healing cap after removing it and cleaning the top of the implant.
What if My Dental Implant is Loose?
A loose-fitting implant can cause severe pain, and there is no choice but to remove it. But do not worry – This is a fixable problem.
Loose implants can happen to anybody; however, the implant usually heals into the bone and merges with it in most cases.
The use of substandard fixtures can provide poor fitting, resulting in a gap formation when placing the implant in the bone. An expert implant dentist and standardize high-quality implant and accessories will prevent this problem.
What is Bone Burn?
In rare circumstances, the bone can become damaged by the heat of the drill during an implant procedure. This delays bone healing causing pain as an area of bone remains dead. Removal of both the implant and dead layer of bone must occur. The dead layer of bone will be replaced with a bone graft to promote the healing process.
What Causes Gum impingement? – Temporary Bridge or Denture?
It can occur by the presence of temporary tooth or denture that may press on the dental implant during the healing process, causing pain due to gum impingement over the implant. A rule of thumb is that once installed; there should be no pressure from a prosthesis on new dental implants in the first few weeks
