If you have recently been told by Dr. Dean Glasser that you need dental implants, you may have more questions about them than you can swallow. Luckily, our staff is here to help answer any of your questions and concerns. The dental implant procedure itself is a two-step procedure. During the first step, a metal rod (which essentially acts an artificial root) will be surgically implanted into your gums. As long as your gums heal nicely around the implant and the implant sticks, then we can move forward with the second step. But because recovery from the first step is so critical, you may not know where to start. This article will take a closer look at three ways to speed up your dental implant recovery.
Rest
For the first day or two, we encourage our patients to take time off of work or away from daily duties to rest. Resting is your body’s number one way to heal itself— no matter what kind of surgery you are having. Plus, who doesn’t love an excuse to lay in bed all day and watch movies?
Be Careful
For the first few days after surgery, make sure that you are careful with the implant area. Specifically, make sure that you don’t prod or probe the area which can disrupt the healing process. Also, we usually encourage patients to avoid doing things like swishing with a lot of water because this can also disrupt any healing.
Switch Out Your Gauze
Some patients experience more bleeding at the surgical site than others. If you do experience regular bleeding for the first several days, make sure that you are applying gauze to the area. The gauze will help stop the bleeding and absorb the blood. If you do use gauze, however, make sure that you switch it out for clean bandages every couple of hours. Dirty gauze can harbor germs and bacteria which may cause an infection.
When we send you home from dental implant surgery, we will give you detailed recovery instructions, but a few extra tips never hurt. To learn more about dental implant surgery, schedule a consultation with Dr. Dean Glasser at our Melville office and call us at (631) 423-6767.
