The Success of a Dental Implant Can Be a Team Effort
It's not as though a dental implant is installed and then left to its own devices. Your dentist will schedule follow up appointments to determine the progress of osseointegration (which is when your jawbone fuses around the titanium bolt in order to secure it in place). The progress is generally checked between 8 and 24 weeks, and the precise schedule will vary from patient-to-patient. But what about if you feel as though something is wrong outside of these appointments?
Noticing Potential Problems Yourself
Although your dentist will be able to spot any obvious issue with the implant while they inspect it, they will need to be informed about any problems you might have experienced, even if these problems have seemingly cleared up. A study has shown that patients can often spot issues with their dental implant just as well as a dentist can. This is quite logical, considering that the implant is in your mouth, so you'll be the person who can physically feel that something might be amiss. But what might this feel like, and how can you differentiate these feelings from the typical sensations of receiving a dental implant?
Inform Your Dentist
It's crucial to inform your dentist if you should notice any pain, swelling, bleeding or pus around the implant, even if these issues should clear up before your next appointment. They can indicate that the implant is in jeopardy, and your dentist might not necessarily flag the problem with a visual inspection. Such symptoms warrant a closer inspection, and it can be that your body requires antibiotics to overcome an unexpected infection that has set in around the implant since such an infection can prevent osseointegration from being successful.
Moving Up Your Next Scheduled Appointment
Just because these unfortunate symptoms have cleared up, it doesn't mean that the underlying cause of the symptoms has also cleared up. If you should experience any curious symptoms around your dental implant, it's important that you contact your dentist as soon as possible to move up your appointment time. It can be helpful for your dentist to see the problem themselves so that the necessary steps can be taken to assist the implant's osseointegration.
Your dentist will do everything within their power to make sure that your implant is successful but don't forget just whose mouth the implant is in. Sometimes it can be a team effort to make sure that there are no issues with the implant.
For more information about dental implants, contact a dentist.