How Long Is The Dental Implant Healing Period Before Crown Placement?
Getting a dental implant is one of the best decisions you can make to obtain a clean and beautiful smile. Once your implant is healed, it’s just a matter of fixing a permanent crown over the implant. Your tooth will feel and look so natural you’ll forget you’re wearing an implant and a crown. It feels that natural. However, there’s a time lapse between your implant surgery and the placement of the final dental crown. This time lapse is when your surgery is expected to heal.
What’s the Integration Process after Implant Surgery?
After surgery, your jaw goes through a process called ‘osseointegration’, which essentially means that the newly implanted titanium root is getting integrated into the bone. The body is in the process of recognizing the titanium root as part of the jaw, and is getting ready to grow new bone around it.
Will The Implant Area Be Left Uncovered During Healing?
Your implant will be covered with a temporary crown till your implant site is healed sufficiently to earn a permanent crown. The implant site cannot be left uncovered, because food debris can get in and cause infections. Sometimes a healing cap is placed over the implant surgery area. This temporary prosthesis will be a tiny bit smaller than your other teeth, and this is because your implant is not ready to take the weight of chewing yet. The plus side is that your smile will be normal and there won’t be a gaping hole because the implant and the healing cap or temporary crown will cover the hole.
What’s The Process Involved in Permanent Crown Placement?
1. Your dentist will likely ask you to come for at least two postoperative sessions before it’s time for your permanent crown. During these visits, your dentist will check that your gum and bone are healing properly.
2. Your dentist will also take impressions of your bite to create the permanent crown. By doing this in the post-operative phase, your dentist ensures that the new crown will sit perfectly and blends correctly with the rest of your smile.
3. After the implant site has healed, and the implant is integrated well with the bone, a permanent dental crown can be placed over an abutment over the implant.
4. Depending on your discussions with your dentist and your dental preferences, you may be fitted with a permanent crown that looks just like a regular tooth, or a multi-unit bridge, or a denture, which is a removable prosthesis. This would be the case if you have multiple missing teeth.
What’s The Healing Time for the Dental Implant Site?
Once the dental implant is placed, there’s a healing time involved and this varies from patient to patient. Some patients heal very fast and are ready for their crowns in a couple of months. For some patients, it can take 6 months or more. If you have diabetes or clotting issues or any other illness that prevents quick healing, crown placement could take longer in your case.
Once this occurs, several months must pass for osseointegration to take place. During this process, the bone fuses to the implant and creates the stability required to support a tooth. Once this process is complete, your dentist will place the final permanent crown, allowing the patient to resume a normal life.
So, the time that is required to pass from the dental implant surgery to the crown placement depends on the following:
• The speed at which your mouth heals
• Your health and rate of healing
• The number of dental implant sites
• The specific teeth to replace
In general, it can take three to six months of healing time before a crown can be placed on the implant site. This time can be longer if the tooth is a load-bearing one.
Conclusion
Once your implant surgery site has healed, your dentist will take create a dental crown based on the impressions taking earlier. This will take 2 visits – you’ll have to wait for two weeks for the new crown to be delivered. Your dentist will bond the dental crown on to the implant prosthesis and you will have a brand new smile to show off. This crown, if made out of hardy materials, will serve you well for a very long time if you take good care of it.
Want to know more about Dental Implants? Contact our dentist in Livonia MI or call us at (734) 522-5520 to schedule our free initial consultation.
