Post surgical pain and the complications,
such as swelling, is one of the most common concerns
for patients interested in receiving implant therapy.
Local anesthesia, in most cases, is enough to ensure that
no discomfort is felt during implant placement,
but what happens after the patients leave the dental chair?
In a recent study in our clinic,
we asked patients to keep a healing diary
for two weeks after the implant surgery.
It revealed that, for the majority of cases,
implant surgery was well tolerated.
Minor discomfort, such as swelling and pain, was transitory,
limited mainly to the first three days post-operation,
and could be well controlled
with simple over-the-counter drug NSAID.
When comparing with other routine dental alveolar surgeries,
for the patients getting more
straightforward implant surgeries,
discomfort felt during healing
was similar to that of simple tooth extraction.
In the same graph, you can see that
the level of pain increased when guided bone regeneration
was used in conjunction with implant surgery,
something that might be attributed
to the higher invasiveness,
and the longer duration of the procedure.
Our data found that only half of the patients
needed painkillers on the first day,
while only one out of four patients
still need to take painkillers on the fourth day.
Swelling was mainly observed when guided bone regeneration
was applied together with the implant placement,
and it appeared to peak during the second day after surgery,
and then steadily subside.
Minor swelling of that type is a natural part
of the healing, and not a complication.
Today, we perceive this type of swelling
as an essential part of the healing response,
as the body mobilizes essential resources
for the repair of the operated area,
and there's no need to take any action
or medication to prevent it.
Communicating these factors prior to the surgery,
will help patients to better prepare
for the healing of the post surgical period.
Bruising and bleeding occurred to a much less degree.
When observed, bleeding disappeared completely
on the third day after all types of surgeries.
Transalveolar extraction,
here implying wisdom tooth extraction,
showed the most frequent bleeding,
but still, it was only limited in first and second days.
Bruising appeared more frequently in implant surgery
with GBR, than other types of surgery,
but again, it occurred to only a small amount of the cases.
Using such data, and in particularly,
when we can relate them with a procedure
the patients has already been through,
like for example an extraction,
can help the patients to better understand
and prepare for the surgical intervention.
It will also allow us to discover
what is uniquely meaningful to each individual,
and identify possible misconceptions.
Nikos MattheosClinical Associate Professor in Implant Dentistry
