No matter how hard you try, you’ll never truly be prepared for every possible challenge or scenario that comes up in life. You may plan how you would respond to certain circumstances, such as natural disasters, medical emergencies, and so on, but other situations can often be forgotten until you go through them. For instance, hopefully, you’ll never have to experience having a dental implant feeling loose in your mouth, but what should you do if it happens? Keep reading to learn the answer.
Stay Calm
Although the sensation of having any tooth feel loose can be disconcerting, try not to panic. Your decision making can suffer, and false moves can put your implant and potentially other teeth at risk of failure. Depending on the severity of the harm, it may not be too late to fix the issue and save your implant.
Call Your Dentist for an Urgent Visit
Immediately, you must get in touch with your dentist and explain what has happened. Not only can they fit you into their schedule as soon as possible, but they can also give you further instructions and guidance for what to do in between your call and your arrival at the office. Their insight can help you preserve the implant until they can treat it professionally. During this conversation on the phone, they will likely ask you some questions, such as the following:
- Did you suffer an injury?
- Are you in pain?
- How loose is it?
- Does it feel loose just on the crown, or does the entire tooth feel like it will come out?
Your answers can reveal the level of urgency.
Refrain from Touching the Tooth
It may be tempting to wiggle the tooth with your tongue or touch it with your fingers, try to avoid disturbing this fragile dentition. Messing with it will only potentially introduce even more bacteria if your hands aren’t clean and certainly make the situation worse. Likewise, don’t use mouthwash unless you are instructed to do so because forceful swishing may aggravate the implant.
Get Treated Quickly
When you see the dentist, they may explain one of two scenarios: the implant itself is loose or just the crown. If the restoration alone feels insecure, it means you either need a replacement, or it simply needs to be recemented onto the implant. Loose implants are trickier to address because it typically means the jawbone has disconnected from the titanium implant post. In some cases, gum infection can damage this bond, meaning salvage could be possible through treatment, but other times, a bone graft or something else is needed to get a smile back on track.
Although dental implants are vastly successful, which means you may never have to feel this sensation or follow through with these steps, remembering them can help you know how to handle this situation, should it every come up.
About the Practice
Dr. Shawn Van de Vyver and Dr. Erin Leppek at Smiles in Shelby proudly stay on top of dentistry’s leading technology and treatment techniques to bring cutting-edge care to our patients. Not only can we restore your dental implants in our office, but we can handle the placement and maintenance of your replacement teeth. Are you interested in learning more about implants and other options? Schedule a consultation today by calling our Shelby Township practice at 586-677-2828 or visiting our website here.