There are several reasons you may have to wait 3 months for dental implants, depending on your situation.
- You just had a tooth removed and a bone graft placed
- It takes your body about 3-6 months to heal the extraction site and turn the bone graft into living bone. It’s reccomended to wait 3-6 months after an extraction to place an implant to allow for full healing of the bone so that the implant has the best chance for success once it is placed. If an implant is placed into an area where the bone graft has not healed fully, the implant may not “take” or heal properly due to the immature bone graft.
- You just had an implant placed
- Bone heals a bit slower than soft tissue, so it takes about 3-6 months after implant placement for the bone in your jaw to fully osseointegrate or “fuse” to the implant. If you bite or eat on the implant before it is fully fused, this can delay healing or in some instances cause the implant to fail. This is pretty similar to if you broke a bone–such a as a leg or arm. You’d have your arm put in a cast for around 8-12 weeks while the bone heals. Your jaw works in the exact same way with the dental implant.
- You had gum grafting around the implant, or it was “buried”
- If your implant was left deep under the gums while it healed, then it is necessary to “uncover” the implant and then allow the gums to heal around the healing abutment. This allows the proper shape and contour for the final tooth to emerge from the gums. It takes 8-12 weeks for soft tissue to fully mature, so sometimes this is the reason you have to wait 3 months after an implant.