The Treatment Process — From First Consultation to Permanent Smile

Most people after 2–4 days. The swelling peaks on day two or three and then comes down; if you work at a computer and don’t mind looking puffy — sometimes as early as day three. A job with a lot of talking, meetings with clients — better to allow a week, partly because the provisional bridge still feels foreign to the tongue and you speak a little differently for the first couple of days. Heavy physical work, lifting, sport — after a week, roughly after the first check-up, because exertion raises blood pressure and can start bleeding. Plan to spend the day of surgery and the day after at home, with cold on the cheek and your head raised. If you had sedation, no driving the next day either.

Three things, once a day, and none of them takes long. An ordinary or electric toothbrush on the teeth and along the gum side, as always. An interdental brush or special floss (superfloss) under the bridge, where the bridge meets the gum — that’s where food gets stuck, and that’s where the trouble starts. And a water flosser (Waterpik) to rinse under the bridge; most of our patients buy one and say it’s what makes the difference. Once a year — an exam and professional clean at the clinic, and then sometimes we take the bridge off, clean it outside and put it back. You get hands-on instruction with the bridge in your mouth, not a leaflet. And if you don’t clean — the warranty doesn’t cover you, and that’s in the agreement, because inflammation around an implant isn’t bad luck, it’s a consequence.

You call and come in, usually the same day, and the repair is generally quick — an acrylic tooth that’s broken off is glued or replaced in the chair. The provisional bridge is made of acrylic for exactly this reason: it’s designed to absorb the period, and whatever breaks on it doesn’t harm the implants. It’s also why we say not to bite hard things in these months. If a large piece breaks, sometimes the bridge goes to the lab for a day and comes back, and you get a temporary solution in the meantime. What you do need to watch for: if the bridge starts to move or “click” — don’t wait for the check-up. A loosened screw is tightened in five minutes; a bridge moving for two weeks on healing implants is another story. You get a direct phone number on the day of surgery.

Three during the healing period, and then the scan for the permanent bridge. One week after surgery — we check the wound, take out stitches if there were any, and make sure the bridge isn’t pressing. One month — a check of the gums and the screws, and a move to a soft-to-medium diet. Three months — we check whether the implants have fused; in the lower jaw we can usually start the permanent, in the upper we wait another one to three months. All the check-ups are at your clinic, with the same team, and all are included in the quote. Once the permanent bridge is in: an exam and professional clean once a year. And in between, if something doesn’t feel right, you call — you don’t wait for the date. The check-ups are also a condition of the warranty, and that’s in the agreement.

Yes — on the implants and on the restoration, and it’s the network’s, not one clinic’s or one dentist’s. That means it’s honoured at every clinic in the network, even if you’ve moved house. The conditions: coming to the check-ups (one week, one month, three months, then yearly) and keeping up the hygiene as you were shown. That isn’t small print — an implant that fails through inflammation in someone who hasn’t come for an exam in two years isn’t a warranty case. What’s covered, for how long, and what happens with an implant that doesn’t take or a bridge that cracks — it’s all set out in writing in the warranty document you get with the quote, before you start. Read it. What’s on the site is a general description; the document is what’s binding.

Something soft and cold: yoghurt, pudding, mashed potato or sweet potato, avocado, ice cream without bits, a smoothie. Three “don’ts” for this evening: nothing hot — heat widens the blood vessels and can start bleeding; nothing spicy — it stings the wound; and no straw — the suction creates negative pressure in the mouth and disturbs clotting. Drink from a cup. The next day, soft pasta, scrambled eggs, fish, noodle soup. Within a week — anything you don’t have to bite into: rice, minced meat, cooked vegetables, soft bread without crust. What stays off the menu for all the healing months is a hard bite — nuts, steak, a whole apple. The written instructions you get on the day of surgery include all this, and more: don’t rinse your mouth vigorously on the first day.

Better not for at least two weeks, and a month if you can manage it. The reason isn’t a general one: smoking in the first two or three days is the most common cause of a wound infection and an implant that doesn’t take. The suction on the cigarette acts on the wound like a straw, the heat and smoke burn the stitched gum, and the nicotine narrows the blood vessels that healing depends on. If you know you won’t manage it, tell us before the surgery, not after: we can plan differently — sometimes six implants instead of four, sometimes the delayed protocol. What you can’t do is lie to yourself and to us, because the implant doesn’t know how to lie.

Yes, that’s exactly the peak. Swelling rises for 48–72 hours after surgery and then starts to go down; sometimes a blue-yellow bruise joins it on the cheek or neck and drifts downwards over the days — that’s normal too. What helps: cold on the first day (a bag of frozen vegetables in a cloth, 20 minutes on, a break, again), warmth from day three to disperse it, sleeping with your head raised on two pillows, and keeping up the painkillers by the clock rather than only when it hurts. What isn’t normal, and then you call instead of waiting for the check-up: a temperature above 38 °C, swelling that grows after day four instead of going down, a bad taste or a discharge that doesn’t clear. The direct number is on the instruction sheet.

Yes — especially then. The one-week and one-month check-ups look for things you can’t feel: a screw that’s loosened slightly, a pressure point on the bridge that will cut into the gum in two weeks’ time, a stitch that hasn’t dissolved, gum that isn’t closing around an implant. Five to ten minutes that save an hour of repair, and sometimes an implant. The three-month check-up isn’t a formality either — that’s where we check whether the implants have fused and decide when to start the permanent. After the permanent: once a year, an exam and professional clean, and then sometimes we take the bridge off and clean underneath. And what’s in the agreement: if you don’t come to the check-ups, the warranty doesn’t cover you. Not as a punishment, but because nobody can vouch for an implant no one has seen in two years.