Yesterday the area around my dental implant felt tender. I wasn’t too worried because it is surgery and does take time to heal. This morning, however, I woke up to that side of my face swollen. As it is the weekend, should I call an emergency dentist or do I need to wait until Monday and see my actual dental implant dentist?
Marina
Dear Marina,
It sounds like you have an infection brewing and a strong one at that. Any time there is pain, it is considered a dental emergency. So, yes, you need to be seen as soon as possible and not wait until Monday.
Infection is the leading cause of dental implant failure so you don’t want to put off getting this seen. Because it is regarding your dental implant, you need to call your office first. Most dentists have protocols in place for emergency situations such as yours.
If for some reason yours does not, you can do an internet search for an “emergency” dentist in your area. At the very least, they can call you in some broad spectrum antibiotics to hold this infection at bay. Though, I’d see if there was a dentist who sees emergency patients who also has experience in implant dentistry.
If the Dental Implant Fails
If you end up with the unfortunate result of your dental implant failing, that’s not necessarily the end of hope. Instead, you can try again. The only difference being you would need to have bone grafting done. This will build back up the bone lost during the procedural failure. Then, when that is healed you can try again.
Sometimes a dentist can do everything right and the procedure still fails. Everyone’s body responds differently to surgery. However, when done by an experienced implant dentist, the success rate is 98-99%. Those are good odds.
This blog is brought to you by Lexington Dentist Dr. John Weaver.
