Dental Implant After Surgery

Do not disturb the wound after dental implant surgery. Avoid rinsing, spitting, or touching the wound on the day of the surgery.

Bleeding

Do not disturb the wound. Avoid rinsing or touching the wound the day of surgery. Some bleeding or redness in the saliva is normal for 24 hours. Bleeding should be controlled by maintaining gauze pressure directly on the incision for 30-60 minutes. If significant bleeding persists, please call the office for further instructions.

Swelling

Swelling is a normal occurrence after surgery. To minimize swelling, apply an ice pack or a plastic bad with ice chips on the skin overlying the area of surgery. Apply the ice on a 30 minutes on / 30 minutes off schedule for the first 48-72 hours.

Diet

Drink plenty of fluids. Maintain a soft/blenderized diet over the first 5-7 days after surgery. At your initial follow up visit, your surgeon will discuss specific diet recommendations with you.

Pain Control

For severe pain, take the pain medicine prescription as directed. It is possible that the prescribed medication can make you sleepy and slow your reflexes. Do not operate machinery or drive an automobile while on prescription narcotic pain medicine. Alcoholic beverages should also be avoided. For additional pain relief, two (2) hours after the prescription pain medicine, 800mg of Advil may be taken. Two (2) hours later the prescription medicine can be repeated. Two (2) hours after this, Advil can be repeated, etc.

For moderate pain, Extra Strength Tylenol can be taken in combination with Ibuprofen (Advil). A maximum dosage of 1000mg of Tylenol and 800mg of Advil may be taken every four hours. These are suggested maximum doses and are intended for use in well-developed, well-nourished adult patients. Please note the combination of Advil and Tylenol should only be used if the prescription medication is not being taken.

Antibiotics

Please take the prescribed antibiotics as directed. This will help prevent infection of the operative site.

Oral Hygiene

Good oral hygiene is essential to good healing. The day after surgery, please start the Peridex rinse of a 2x per day basis. This should be early morning and early evening.
Warm salt-water rinses should also be used 4-5 times throughout the day – especially after meals.

Brushing your teeth in normal fashion is important. However, specific cleansing of the surgical site will be reviewed by your surgeon.

Activity

Physical activities should be kept to a minimum immediately following surgery. Please consult with your surgeon preoperatively to discuss returning to exercise programs and significant physical activity. Usually, patients can return to their normal activities in a very short time frame. Again, the specifics of this time frame should be discussed with your surgeon.

Wearing your Prosthesis

Full dentures and partial dentures should be used on a specific schedule as discussed with your surgeon. This will be reviewed in detail in your immediate post-operative instructions.

Smoking

No smoking for a minimum of one week after dental implant surgery. Smoking is very detrimental to healing.

For information regarding other surgical instructions, please review this page.