I am a few months into my dental implant treatment. Everything was fine until a few days ago. I woke up feeling weird and my implant area felt strange. I decided just to give it a day or so but now I’m in pain and my jaw feels like it’s swollen. My dentist is on vacation. Do I need to go see an emergency dentist or can this wait until he gets back? How will I know if they’re familiar with dental implants or not?
Charity
Dear Charity,
It sounds like you have developed an infection at the dental implant site. This is serious and needs to be treated. Infection is one of the leading causes of dental implant failure. You are wise to want a dentist who is familiar with the dental implant procedure. This isn’t something for which I’d just see the first emergency dentist which pops up on a Google search for.
Before we get into finding an emergency dentist in your situation, I have a different recommendation. Your dentist should have someone he uses for these situations when he’s out of town. There should be a colleague of his he has step into the breach. Have you checked with his receptionist? This would likely be someone he trusts to deal with the type of procedures he handles.
When Your Dentist Makes No Provision for Emergencies
If your dentist doesn’t have that type of provision for his patients, I strongly recommend finding a new practitioner after this procedure is resolved. However, we still need to deal with your situation. Your first step would be to do that emergency dentist internet search. From there, check out their website. What type of dental implant training do they have?
You’ll want someone who really understands this procedure. Make sure they have post-doctorate training with a reputable institution. It’s also prudent to check their reviews. Make sure they are good with patients.
If there is absolutely no one who can see you right away, don’t just wait. Call your medical doctor and ask him to prescribe an antibiotic for you. This will hopefully hold off the infection until you can get in. However, I don’t want you to use this as an excuse to wait. It’s important you get seen quickly if you want a chance to save your implant. Plus, infections spread. Your jaw has already been affected. Think about how close your jaw is to your brain and heart. Things like this can turn life-threatening quickly.
This blog is brought to you Lexington Cosmetic Dentist Dr. Fred Arnold.