Dental Care for All of Us

If you are planning on getting a dental implant, you'll want to do everything in your power to decrease the risks of infection or implant failure; otherwise, you may need to have to redo the surgery. Here are just a few things your dentist can do to increase good outcomes for your implant surgery.

Help You Identify Risk Factors

Because of improving dental technology, contraindications for this surgery have decreased. However, that doesn't mean that every patient has a high chance of success. Your dentist can help you identify risk factors so that you can make the appropriate changes to your habits and/or health.

For instance, do you smoke? If so, your dentist may recommend that you abstain from the habit a few weeks before and after surgery to improve your healing times. Do you have any health conditions? Diabetics may need to get their glucose levels under control so that they can heal better after surgery. Some patients, like those with osteoporosis, may need to use alternative medications since some drugs can affect bone healing after surgery.

You'll want to have your dentist help you identify certain risk factors, and then you and your primary care doctor can work on ways to mitigate those risk factors.

Use a Bone Graft to Save Necessary Bone Structure

If you've been missing some teeth for some time, your jaw bone may have shrunk. You need enough good bone structure to actually support the implant, so your dentist might recommend a bone graft surgery before the implant placement. A bone graft can increase your chances of success. If you are getting a tooth extracted, then your dentist might perform a socket graft during that time. This type of graft protects your old tooth socket and keeps the surrounding bone from deteriorating so that you can get an implant sooner rather than later.

Recommend Botox Injections to Improve Osseointegration

Again, good bone density is vital to support the dental implant. Osseointegration is a medical term that simply means that bone grows or "integrates" around the implant. If there isn't good osseointegration after surgery, then the implant can fail. One cause of poor osseointegration is teeth grinding (bruxism). If a person grinds his or her teeth, then the jaw bone is continually agitated, thus making it hard for bone tissue to heal properly around the implant. According to one study, Botox injections can help relax tense muscles in patients with bruxism, thus improving osseointegration after implant surgery.

Place Anti-Microbial Coatings to Reduce Pathogens

One reason dental implants can fail is because of bad oral bacteria. This bacteria can cause inflammation and infection around the implant. To reduce this problem, your dentist can actually coat the implant post with anti-microbial materials to reduce bacterial adhesion to the implant. This type of coating is painless and can be placed during your surgery.

As you can see, there are a lot of things your dentist can do to help you improve your surgical success rates. Reach out to a dentist in your area today for more details on dental implants.