Instructions following dental implant surgery

How to take care of your mouth

  • Do not rinse your mouth, spit, drink from a straw or smoke immediately after dental implant surgery.
  • Avoid hot spicy or hard foods after dental surgery. It is important to drink plenty of fluids and to keep some food in your stomach. A soft diet is strongly recommended until your review visit.
  • If you wear a denture, you may have been asked to leave the denture out for a period of time after your implant surgery. This is to encourage the area to heal as well as possible.

Pain, Swelling, Bruising and Discomfort

  • Pain, swelling and bruising are all possible following surgery and may last up to 10 days. Generally, the swelling will increase in the first 2-3 days but then should gradually decrease.
  • You can place an ice pack over the surgical site to reduce discomfort and swelling. The ice pack should be left on the face for 15 minutes and then removed from the face for 15 minutes. This pattern can be continued for a couple of hours. If you don’t have an ice pack, you can wrap ice in a damp tea towel.

Do Not Blow Your Nose

Usually upper posterior implants with less bone support will be near the sinus. In these cases, do not blow your nose for at least two weeks.

Brushing and Rinsing

  • You may use your toothbrush as you usually do to brush your natural teeth. Do not use a toothbrush near the implant sites until you return for your review appointment.
  • Rinse your mouth with a chlorhexidine mouthwash (e.g. Corsodyl®) 3 times per day until your review visit. If you need an extra rinse, warm salty water will help to keep the area clean and help with the healing.

Medications

  • You may be prescribed an antibiotic. Take these medications exactly as prescribed for best results.
  • Your usual pain medication such as paracetamol and ibuprofen (e.g.nurofen) can be taken according to the manufacturer’s instructions. If you have no medical contra indications, you can take both paracetamol and ibuprofen but don’t take them at the same time. It is more effective to stagger them eg paracetamol and then three hours later, ibuprofen, continuing with this alternating pattern. Make sure to read each label and don’t take your analgesia more frequently than recommended.
  • If you are experiencing an adverse reaction to any of the medications, such as nausea, vomiting, a rash or severe stomach irritation, discontinue the medication and contact our clinic.

Bleeding

It is normal for the surgical site to have some residual bleeding for the first few hours following the surgery. If there is bleeding, do not try to stop the bleeding by rinsing, as that will make the bleeding worse. Instead, apply pressure to the bleeding area by biting on a clean damp gauze for 30 minutes.

Postoperative Visit

Within one to two weeks following the surgery, you must return to our clinic to have the sutures removed and to make sure the site is healing properly.

Smoking

Smoking will interfere with proper healing and increase postoperative pain. Please refrain from smoking.

If you have any concerns, please feel free to contact our clinic at 061-653500, by email info@limerickdentalspecialists.com.