After Dental Implants: Three Tips to Ease Your Adjustment
Posted on: 21 May 2018
Dental implants are one of the most popular of all tooth replacement services today, and for good reason. They can give you a permanent solution that also happens to look incredibly natural. Whilst there's no doubt that dental implants offer some great benefits, you'll have to go through a bit of an adjustment period before you can use your implants just like natural teeth. Here are three tips that can make that adjustment period as smooth and easy as possible.
1. Change Your Eating Habits
Whilst you might be accustomed to eating anything and everything without any thought about its hardness or texture, this needs to change as you adjust to your new dental implants. Your dental implants are firmly set inside your jaw, but they haven't yet had a chance to become fully integrated with the jaw bone just yet. This means that eating very difficult foods may prove to be a bit uncomfortable for the time being -- and it may also mean that the implants are at risk for shifting.
Fortunately, you don't have to make drastic changes in your diet. Your dentist may recommend a soft diet for a few days after the new dental implants are installed, but after that you can resume eating most foods. You'll just need to avoid extra hard, very crunchy, or very chewy foods. Leave the raw veggies and sticky sweets alone for a few weeks and you should be just fine.
2. Learn to Floss Again
Flossing with dental implants is a bit different than it is with natural teeth, so you'll need to learn a more thorough flossing routine. You need to move upwards between the gums and teeth whilst flossing with natural teeth, but it's more complex with dental implants. Move the floss, up and in an arc, until you touch the dental implant base, and then repeat on the other side. This may feel a bit odd at first because it's not possible with natural teeth. However, the new style of flossing will quickly become routine and easy.
3. Alleviate Swelling and Discomfort
After dental implants are placed, it's normal to experience swelling and minor discomfort in the gums. Your gums may feel and look quite puffy, especially if the dentist had to alter the gum contour to accommodate the implants. This swelling can cause some minor discomfort for at least the first few days after the implants are installed.
Fortunately, the swelling and discomfort is usually quite short-lived. To speed along the healing and relief, you can take over the counter pain relievers as recommended by your dentist. An ice pack on the outer jaw can also be quite helpful for swelling and pain. The sooner that you feel better, the sooner that you'll be able to appreciate your beautiful new smile.
Ready to get your dental implants? Be sure to put the above tips into practise to make the experience as pleasant and easy as possible! Call your local dentist for more information about dental implants today.
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